#e&f miler

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Tac Talks Coasters - Post 191

Photo Sources: All photos are mine

Great Pumpkin Coaster at Kings Island!

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Opened: 1992 Manufacturer: E&F Miler Height: 8 ft (2.4 m) Speed: 8 mph (12.8 kph) Length: 199.2 ft (60.7 m) Place in my rankings: #165 (landing between Great Pumpkin Coaster at Kings Dominion and Riddler Revenge at Six Flags New England)

The second of the two new credits I got at Kings Island, this one had been dodging me for a long time and I'm satisfied I was finally able to get on it lol. The Great Pumpkin Coaster is Kings Island's smallest coaster and is meant to be kids' first foray into these rides. And it accomplishes that purpose well, with small hills and gentle turns but still exciting enough for its target demographic.

That's the key term: target demographic. Of which I am not a part lmao. Don't get me wrong, the ride was fine, it was just a little awkward being 24 and riding this coaster meant for young kids, but hey, when you gotta get the credit, you gotta get the credit lmao. The reason I hadn't ridden this one until now, despite having been to the park twice before was because, in 2019, the park had a height restriction saying that anyone over 54" tall couldn't ride without a kid. By my second visit to the park in 2024, they had removed that restriction, but I just didn't have the time to ride it that day. So I made sure to ride it this time to finally give myself Kings Island completion haha. Though my sister seemed to have more dignity than I do, since she declined to ride with me lmao.

Anyways, this is the same model of E&F Miler family coaster you can find all over the world in varying sizes. This is the smallest of the layouts they offer, and is identical to two others I'd already done, with Kings Dominion's Great Pumpkin Coaster and Thriller at Land of Make Believe. I ended up ranking this one one spot behind King's Dominion's Great Pumpkin Coaster since that one has the edge in terms of theming with a big pumpkin cutout the train passes through, as well a better, more scenic location nestled in the trees. I did find it to run smoother and with less jerky side to side motions than Thriller though.

Interestingly enough, this was also the first coaster E&F Miler ever made. I think that might be a contributing factor to one characteristic I noticed with the ride that I think the park may wanna look into haha. Whenever the train was going up the lift hill, about two thirds of the way up, the train goes CLUNK with a noticeable jolt, and then a second, smaller clunk and jolt a few seconds later. It seemed to happen every time I saw the ride cycle and I can't imagine that's a healthy sound/feeling for the ride lmao.

Weirdly janky lifthill aside, similar to Snoopy's Soap Box Racers yesterday, the Great Pumpkin Coaster is fine for what it is, but where as I'd be happy to ride Snoopy's again, I don't think I'll need to ride this one again now that I've got the credit haha.

Thanks for checking out today's coaster post! More will be coming later this summer, so keep an eye out!

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Tac Talks Coasters - Bonus Post 3

Photo Sources: All photos are mine

Great Chase at Six Flags New England!

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Opened: 1996 Manufacturer: E&F Miler Height: 13 ft (3.9 m) Speed: 12 mph (19 kph) Length: 337 ft (102 m) Place in my rankings: #152 (falling between Wilderness Run at Carowinds and Blazing Fury at Dollywood)

Sticking at Six Flags New England for the time being for what will be the shortest TTC post I've written in a LONG time (thank god lmao). That's mainly because there just isn't that much to talk about here lol. We have a brief detour back to the land of kiddie coasters here with Six Flags New England's Great Chase. I was committed to riding this one because I missed the other Great Chase at Six Flags America and I wasn't gonna miss the other one lmao.

As far as pure kiddie coaster go though, I actually thought this one was pretty solid, and I slid it in as the highest ranked straight kiddie coaster on my list, beating out Wilderness Run at Carowinds. What put it over other E&F Miler kiddie coasters I've done like Wilderness Run, Kozmo's Kurves, Great Pumpkin Coaster or Thriller was mainly its layout. I thought this layout was a bit more interesting than the rest of those rides, and I liked the slightly larger scale of it as well. It's still meant for kids so it's nothing crazy of course, but the two hills after the drop were still kinda fun all things considered.

Great Chase also felt smoother and better profiled than most of those other kiddie coasters I mentioned. On some of those rides (Thriller in particular) anyone who's not a small child can get tossed around a fair bit during some of the transitions and hills, making for an uncomfortable ride. I didn't find that to be an issue here on Great Chase, which was definitely good. The theming around the ride with all kinds of Looney Tunes stuff is fun too.

The one main downside to the ride was that you only went around the course once. On some of those other kiddie coasters, the ride operator will send the train around two or three times but here it was just the once. I'm not sure if that's how the ride is usually run or just the day I was there, but either way, a little disappointing.

But all things considered, it's just a coaster meant for kids. It doesn't really do anything bad in that regard and I actually thought it was kinda fun for what it was. Like all the other kiddie coasters I've talked about previously in TTC, it's mainly so far down in my rankings because there's just so much bigger and better stuff out there.

Thanks for checking out today's coaster post! Keep an eye out for tomorrow's coaster!

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Tac Talks Coasters - Post 33: #138

Photo Sources: All photos are mine

Wilderness Run at Carowinds!

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Opened: 1998 Manufacturer: E&F Miler Height: 16 ft (4.8 m) Speed: Not listed Length: 416 ft (126.8 m) My most recent ride: 2018

And here we've finally reached the end of this block of kiddie coasters. Of the Miler rides in particular, Carowinds' Wilderness Run is my favorite, mainly due to it's surprisingly good airtime during it's run of bunny hills. Kozmo's Kurves from yesterday has some air too, but I found the airtime on Wilderness Run to be more pronounced and overall stronger than Kozmo.

The ride also looks great following it's 2018 repaint and re-theme into Wilderness Run from it's previous blue paint scheme as Lucy's Crabbie Cabbies. The colors look really clean and fit in well with the rest of Camp Snoopy. I don't know how the ride looks or is running nowadays, since I haven't been to Carowinds since 2019, but as of my last visit, the ride still looked good.

Like all of the other Miler coasters, it still has some of that side to side tossing feeling, which can be a bit jarring. But like I said at the start, the surprising airtime on this one makes up for it.

Thanks for checking out today's coaster post! Keep an eye out for tomorrow's coaster!

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Tac Talks Coasters - Post 32: #139

Photo Sources: All photos are mine

Kozmo's Kurves at Knoebels!

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Opened: 2009 Manufacturer: E&F Miler Height: 20 ft (6 m) Speed: Not listed Length: 416 ft (126.8 m) My most recent ride: 2024

Here we are with another Miler family coaster, and if I had to bet, this is the Miler coaster I've ridden the most. I've been going to Knoebels for almost 20 years now and it's always fun to go on this little purple coaster every now and then. Opening in 2009, this is a successor coaster to the former High Speed Thrill Coaster (which we'll see a bit later on down my list), which operated on the same plot of land (even with the same station building) from 1955 all the way until 2008.

Kozmo's Kurves (bearing the name of the park's mascot character) incorporates the same airtime bunny hills the High Speed Thrill Coaster was known for, while also incorporating new elements like a helix. Similar to the Great Pumpkin Coaster from yesterday, Kozmo's Kurves also has a nice location, with this one being positioned over the park's Motor Boats ride. If you're on the Motor Boats, you get a really neat view of the coaster as well.

This one, like a lot of Miler's coasters, still has a little bit of the "throw you around" jerkiness problem that a lot of kiddie coasters have, so that's nothing new here, but the location, addition of the helix, and my sentimental fondness for it put it above Thriller and the Great Pumpkin Coaster.

Thanks for checking out today's coaster post! Keep an eye out for tomorrow's coaster!

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Tac Talks Coasters - Post 19: #152

Photo Sources: All photos are mine

Thriller at Land of Make Believe!

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Opened: 1994 Manufacturer: E&F Miler Height: 8 ft (2.4 m) Speed: Not listed Length: 199.3 ft (60.7 m) My most recent ride: 2016

This is, as far as I can tell, the first roller coaster I ever rode! Usually, I say that Dorney Park is my home park, but that's not entirely true. While Dorney is my closest major park and is easily the park I visit the most nowadays, the Land of Make Believe is the closest park to where I live and I went there all the time when I was really young! More often than not, rather than it's official name of Thriller, my family usually just calls this "the little green coaster at the Land of Make Believe" lol.

But sentimentality aside, usually E&F Miler usually make relatively solid little family rides and they're usually generally enjoyable since they're usually relatively smooth and usually have some fun little gentle airtime pops. But notice the "usually" attached to both of those points. Thriller is, similar to the Zamperla Gravity coasters we went over a couple days ago, definitely on the jerky and uncomfortable side of kiddie coasters. Part of that might be due to the fact that it's actually the second oldest operating E&F Miler coaster out there, only behind the Great Pumpkin Coaster at Kings Island, according to RCDB. I actually didn't know that til putting this together lol. But I think that Miler has honed their craft with their kiddie coasters in the time since this one, so this one still a bit rough around the edges.

But I will always think of it fondly in some regard for setting me on my way to start my coaster journey :3

Thanks for checking out today's coaster post! Keep an eye out for tomorrow's coaster!