Honestly, though I’d hate to see this company die because there are some truly exceptional people working there, I wouldn’t be fully mad. RMC has made their impact in the coaster world, making other manufacturers more diverse and creative, and RMC has definitely made the coaster world a good place. They made their legacy,and they will be remembered for generations.
I actually think that they will succeed again, I think that what will happen is that we will see a bunch of raptors for the foreseeable future, and then in the somewhat far future, they will do all of the conversions for the few parks that I think need them (like some cedar fair parks and some others), along with some ground-up hybrids, and some new models, like the t-rex and family coasters.
There are multiple wooden roller coasters out there that need help from RMC. What happens next for RMC depends on when and if the parks that have those rough coasters will ever reach out to them.
Arie Force is a good ground up model that's not a single rail. the fact is there are only so many amusement parks in the world. they might need to try to do more work outside of the country if they want to keep expanding. they might need to go back to building rides for other companies or stick to retracking
RMC started with basically two products to redo old rough wooden rollercoasters and no parks were interested. Instead, parks jumped on the iron horse tracks and ordered complete redesigns of an old, rough problematic wooden rollercoaster. There have been a very small number of brand new RMC designed from the ground up wooden coasters to utilize their topper track product. No parks have really made use of topper track to revitalize an old, rough, and problematic wooden coaster. We automatically think "getting RMCed" means increasing the old lift hill by 80 feet. Changing the first drop to near vertical, and then going crazy with flips and flings providing rapidly violent ejector air time. Maybe we need to change our definition for "getting RMCed" to include the idea of a classic wooden rollercoaster getting a retrack with topper track to reduce wear-n-tear and increase the smoothness of some amazing classic wooden rollercoasters.
If it's possible, this is what should be in mind with the idea of "Rmcing" El Toro. it doesn't need to be heavily altered. But with new trains and new track, still actually mostly wooden. They could still maybe take out one hill and put in an inversion. But at that point GCI titan track might be a better choice. That one is a hot mess though.
@@b-chroniumproductions3177they still sell it but dont advertise it. There are some european parks that want to buy a toppertrack refuebishment but lack money
Man I hope they stick around, they really have been one of if not the most innovative manufactures. Would be sad to see them go no matter how unlikely it is that they do. Awesome Video btw 😊
I don't see them just dissapering or at least theri tech disappering. Arrows went away but basicly Vekoma was an arrow clone. Well nowadays the old arrow compagny is finaly death since Vekoma got really good with their own new gen tech.
@@arturobianco8484d free spins and 4d coasters are still an open legacy to arrow. I’m hoping we see another 4d someday. And I still don’t think there is a good replacement for their suspended coaster.
@@TrentonLarge Not saying they didn't earned their place in the coaster history. But the concepts they developed have been overtaken by other manufactorers. Except for the 4d but it looks like that one will be overtaken pretty soon to.
I think that it would be very valuable for them if they made a model that can be easily themed so they could be way more marketable to Disney/Universal as well as Europe.
4:40 Yeah they way under calculated the structure for the high up inversions. I remember being there 3 months after opening and thinking "no wayyyyy is that much sway good for the ride" They fixed this with Iron Gwazi, presumably, with the steel supports. I don't get how you don't have an extra one or two friction brakes or friction wheels on your final brake run either. B&M would. Their trains suck @$$ too. They definitely have some issues coming up. Just not enough sales.
Rocky Mountain Construction is an initiative company, the coaster landscape is changing, and i'm sure they will attempt to change with it, there's lots of paths RMC could take to run out of business but there will also be many paths they can take to continue to succeed in the future.
The RMC hybrids are my favorite model, I’m kind of sad none are being built at the moment. The Intamin Hot Racer looks like the superior single rail coaster, and Mack Rides are producing some amazing creations. The competition is crazy.
They’ve got 4 raptors opening next year which is pretty good for a company as small as they are. Quite a few of the engineering issues they had early on have been ironed out now and if they were to build a coaster like SteVe or Lightning Rod now I’m fairly certain they wouldn’t have anything like the same issues but as you mentioned building trust back will be hard.
Please don't then i have to go there again. Now i like the park so beig there isn't a punishment but them getting there. O well it would be a good excuse to go back to that earia. I did miss some of the smaller parks and i can do that woody in canada wich was closed when i was there.
But look at Walibi Holland for example. They worked with RMC to create Untamed 5 years ago, and now decided to work with them again to build a Dueling RMC Raptor.
the fact that walibi holland here in the netherlands bought a 2nd (and technically 3rd) rmc despite the problems with untamed (a vekoma wooden coaster conversion) i believe ther might be a good market outside of north america where their reputation is not as tarnished, along with that there are many wooden coasters in europe that are still screaming for some major work to be done like loup garou in walibi belgium. thats why i believe rcm might want to look more towards the intercontinental market rather then the north american one if they wat large amounts of succes
Yeah, and they have multiple raptor projects going on right now, the 208 retrack projects like white lightning & T express, and the parts for all their operating attractions.
I think at least some of Steel Vengeance’s problems were the result of Cedar Point’s decisions on the project. CP pushed RMC to develop the 2nd gen Legacy Trains, which are heavier than their older trains partially due to the swing axles. Depending on when that decision was made, the structural design might have been finalized and under construction. RMC might have told CP that the trains were heavier than the structure was designed for, but CP was unwilling to pay for more structural reinforcement, as many other RMC’s use steel support columns and many other large scale RMC’s have used the steel truss lift. The bumping incident on opening day was a result of that. To help offset with heavier trains. RMC used a lighter aluminum brake fin that doesn’t generate the eddy current a heavier copper brake fin would. So the trains weren’t being slowed down as much as they should’ve been and a train slipped through at low speed. I believe SteVe reopened that day, but with just one train. This has come up again with TT2, as Zamperla was likely the cheapest way to modify Dragster, and the risk of working with a manufacturer inexperienced at making coasters anywhere near that scale to save cost didn’t pay off. For SteVe, that wasn’t RMC’s first rodeo, so I think not having additional steel support columns or a steel truss lift structure were CP decisions that can’t be pinned fully on RMC.
I like how you show so much ofLightning Rod but not one mention of how problematic that was before they took out the launch. I've ridden it with the launch and all I can say is how over hyped it was. What a major let down for me. My first RMC was Steel Vengeance so maybe I am a little jaded.
I’m really surprised why there is not a single RMC conversion of an old, rough and unpopular wooden roller coaster since Wildcat’s Revenge at Hersheypark that opened back in 2023. Hopefully, we will see another park converts one of their wooden coasters into a hybrid coaster but maybe another hyper-hybrid or the actual first Giga-hybrid coaster.
Good video. They really need to develop their portfolio as just doing hybrid conversions is not a long term business model. It may have worked up until now in the US, but their worldwide sales are very poor. European manufacturers make a great income from Asia, and RMC just ain't at the party.
I think the T Rex track has a LOT of potential. I could see a lot of different types of trains and layouts using it. Similar to how B&M uses the same track for different types of coasters, RMC could do the same. Imagine some type of RMC dive coaster, or an invert. They just need the cashflow and engineering support. Hopefully that can happen.
I really want a raptor to go in place of scorpion at Busch gardens. I feel like it opposite of phoenix would be an awesome addition to the park since they took scorpion away.
I wish valleyfair would replace arrows horrible mouse coaster with wild moose they look fun. Hopefully lost island is getting one...no word other than the single rail already confirmed
Quick note about SteVen. RMC didn’t want to make it a hyper but cedar point insisted on making it massive and making it a hyper. RMC should have really pushed back but ultimately Cedar Fair is to blame with SteVen I feel. I kinda feel cedar fair has crazy expectations for these companies and when they inevitably fail cedar fair blames the manufacturer. I kinda feel like CF is to blame here
Depending on what they do i can still see some bright future for the compagny. They need to expand out of the US and verge away from big extreme coasters (or i should say not focuss exclusivly on them). I'm from Europe and currently we only have only 3 RMC on the entire continent. 2 are located sort of in the perifery zone and 1 in a for europe high thrill park. Now for the community that isn't a problem (i travell even to the states for coasters still miffed that TT2 was down when i booked a half year in advantance). But they don't reach the generale public here in europe and european parks are way more family oriented then american ones. So there is still a big potentiale market in europe and i guess asia as well. What RMC needs are family models for their stuff to (so only mildly thrilling i don't think it will work for real kiddy stuff). And guess what next year in the high thrill park they are going to open 2 RMC Raptors 1 extreme one and 1 nerved so that its suppose to be a more family thrill atraction. This would be a good park to get there feet wet with the second kind since its the first raptor in europe and they also have the presumaly good extreme one. Not all people visiting this park like super intense coasters they do have some kiddy rides to. So if this performces as its intended then its an easy visite for other european parks to come and take a look.
You didn't mention that Alan Schilke also retired around the same time as Fred Grubb. The good news is that Arie Force and Wildcat's are good. Don't you think those projects demonstrate that RMC still be competitive?
RMC isn't failing at all , they are a new player in the rollercoaster game and they are killing it , their first coaster was build in 2011 and since then they build 29 coaster/conversions and still going strong with 2 new coasters a year, and thats fine. we need to stop comparing manufactures like RMC with the big established manufactures like B&M Intamin vekoma etc. The problems with the hybrid conversions they have done were known to the theme parks before construction occurred , the parks that got rmc conversions got rid of a bottom tier coaster in their parks that was also a maintains cost nightmare and got world class coasters in place of that for a bargain, those parks were well aware of the problems that could occur putting an extreme steel coaster on 20 year old wooden supports so thats not a real issue. Then looking at their raptor coasters , sixflags ordered 2 in 2018 tested them out and after 3 years decided they want 2 more , so that isnt a fail also, if they where really concerned or pissed of with those rides they wouldnt have ordered more of them. new ride concepts always have issues but apparently RMC dealt with that in the right way. The buzz around rmc failing is coming from the fact that they mostly have sold rides in the US , and that the whole US coaster market is crashing, The next step for RMC is selling more rides in europe and asia , that is where the money is at at the moment, look at vekoma , they are killing it in europe and asia at the moment. And the fact that 2 out of 3 of their newest coasters are going to europe and asia means that they are on the right path and are defintly not failing. Also them teaming up with larson doesnt realy do anything for them other then cost reductions/manufacturing capacity , larson has been around for about the same time as RMC and only produce small flat rides or shit that fails.
I really think enthusiasts just like to catastrophize and jump conclusions because they think being enthusiasts somehow makes them aware of the inner workings of the industry. It honestly gets kind of annoying. Like, speculation can be fun, but when it's people constantly trying to prove that they have some special insight because they can repeat the same bad logic as every other enthusiast it gets kind of tiring. They take one little thing they thought up and then look for reasons to justify it. It's like one of the most prevalent and well known logical fallacies and for some reason enthusiasts are just completely blind to it. Cedar point has been given this completely unfounded characterization as like some sort of completely ignorant, stuck up monster who completely bans any manufacturer who doesn't provide them with coasters as reliable as B&M, like they just don't understand that if you build something as intense as steel vengeance then it will need to have the kinks ironed out and now they will never work with RMC again.
So no major coasters being built MEANS they are failing. like what the fuck? They did the reinvention of Fire in the Hole and more likely are doing Blazing Fury. they dont have to do major installments just to be successful ya nimrod. Sometimes you have to do other shit for awhile till someone wants those hyper hybrids again.
If they can't diversefy and get into new markets that is what will be happening. Fortunatly for them they seem to be getting that becuase next year a double raptor is opening up in the netherlands a normale one and a more family oriented high thrill side (that high Thrill for a family coaster). Also a raptor is comming to south korea in 2026.
Premier have a really good niche product wich they do export all over the world and is sustainable. RMC at least their conversion model and even the new builds are not sustainable. There is just to little demand for that stuff. Now their raptor models are but i would also like to see a little diversification. think about more family thrill rides for theire I box. A normale seated version of a raptor track and an inverted one. That would make RMC sustainable and then they can make the truly awsome ones whenever a park wants one. Because i love the good ones but i can't see more then 5 (of the level eari force) coming to europe. At least not if they don't do the other stuff.
RMC will be fine. This all sounds like typical enthusiast alarmist speculation run wild. We may not see the rash of crappy woodies getting remade in RMC's image that we saw in the 2010's (probably what enthusiasts will come to refer as RMC's "golden age"). But I'm sure over the next 10 years we'll see ground-up hybrids, the occasional RMC conversion (I'm looking at you Timberwolf), and some new models thrown in.
