Six Flags Magic Mountain to unveil 19th coaster in 2014

Rather than a big new ride for 2014, Six Flags Magic Mountain will unveil several smaller attractions throughout the year.

The Valencia amusement park will run a couple of coasters backward in the spring, add a kiddie coaster and a pair of water slides in the summer and expand its Halloween offerings in the fall.

After introducing the Full Throttle looping launch coaster this year at Magic Mountain, it makes sense that Six Flags would spread the wealth to other locations in the amusement park chain in 2014.

PHOTOS: New attractions coming to Six Flags Magic Mountain in 2014

Magic Mountain’s biggest addition for 2014 is a small coaster in the park’s Bugs Bunny World kiddie land. Known as a Family Gravity Coaster, the Zamperla ride will get a name and theme inspired by an as-yet-unannounced Warner Bros. cartoon character.

Similar to the park’s existing Canyon Blaster coaster, the new kiddie ride will feature a 280-foot-long track with an oval layout and a mid-course helix.

With a top speed of 16 mph, the 14-foot-tall coaster certainly won’t quicken the pulses of ride enthusiasts but it will raise Magic Mountain’s coaster count to an impressive 19, more than any other amusement park in the world.

That’s bad news for Cedar Point. The Ohio park recently ceded the title of Roller Coaster Capital of the World to Magic Mountain and won’t be reclaiming the crown any time soon. Cedar Point’s loyal and vocal fans will tell you their beloved park’s coaster collection is far superior to Magic Mountain’s and point out that the California park pads its numbers with four kiddie coasters. But that doesn’t change the current score: Magic Mountain 19 and Cedar Point 16.

Magic Mountain’s Hurricane Harbor water park will also add a pair of Bonzai Pipeline slides in 2014 featuring enclosed capsules with trap doors that drop riders into a high-speed free fall. Similar capsule slides have been recently added at Six Flags water parks in Massachusetts, Missouri and Maryland.

In Fall 2014, Magic Mountain plans to add a large new haunted maze to its Fright Fest lineup that will be similar in scope and size to Aftermath, which featured post-apocalyptic scenes of overturned vehicles, hovering helicopters and fireball explosions in the former Batman stunt show arena.

In recent years, Magic Mountain has trailed behind Universal Studios Hollywood and Knott’s Berry Farm when it comes to Halloween-themed events. The Six Flags park hopes to catch up to the Halloween heavyweights this year and next with the addition of more monsters, new mazes and longer hours.

In the Spring, Magic Mountain will introduce a fun gimmick that’s proven popular at other Six Flags parks: Backward coasters. For a limited time starting around Spring Break, the 1994 Batman inverted steel coaster and the 1978 Colossus twin-track wooden coaster will operate with trains running backward.

It remains to be seen if this marks the beginning of an extended farewell promotion for the classic Colossus coaster.

Recently Six Flags converted two old wooden coasters - the 1990 Texas Giant at Six Flags Over Texas and the 1992 Rattler at Six Flags Fiesta Texas - into wood-steel hybrids that combine a steel track with a wooden structure.

The hybrid conversions, both handled by Idaho-based Rocky Mountain Construction, simultaneously extended the lives of the maintenance-prone rides and turned them into buzz-worthy “new” attractions. Medusa at Six Flags Mexico will get the same treatment in 2014 along with the introduction of multiple looping inversions.

Colossus would be an obvious candidate for a Rocky Mountain makeover, but only time will tell if 2015 is the year of the Iron Colossus.

Related theme park stories and photo galleries

Disneyland: Fantasy Faire | Mickey & the Magical Map

Universal Studios Hollywood: Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Six Flags Magic Mountain: Full Throttle

Knott’s Berry Farm: Timber Mountain | Coast Rider

SeaWorld San Diego: Aquatica

U.S. parks: Top 13 for 2013 | Disney World | Cedar Point | Top 10 water coasters

International parks: Top 13 for 2013 | Shanghai Disneyland | Disneyland Paris | Top 20 water parks

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