Theme Park Discussion / Chinese Ripoff Ride Rundown

With the recent expulsion of Golden Horse from IAAPA and a whole host of new Chinese ripoff coasters popping up in 2012 I thought it would be interesting to see exactly where this trend might lead over the next few years.

So I've trawled through a few Chinese manufacturer sites to see who is next in line to have their designs stolen\murdered by the multitude of companies out there.

I have already extensively covered the SLC ripoffs that started to appear a few years ago and we all know about the insane number of spinning & inverted wild mice already built in China. So in this post I will be sticking to the other types of ride we have’t seen so much recently.

Golden Horse

Golden Horse were one of the first on the scene with their SLC ripoffs at the Fantawild parks, Unlike most of the other companies they didn’t just ripoff the track style they copied the layout of the Kumali style Vekoma SLC’s exactly. but why stop there? In fact why not go a little bigger and try and ripoff B&M.


Golden Horse now advertise a Flying Coaster on their site. It looks kind of familiar doesn't it?

Hebei Zhongye Metallurgical Equipment Manufacturing

The company with the longest name in the coaster world (probably) is known for its smaller looping coasters prevalent across China, these tend to take standard loopscrew formats but in 2012 it was announced they would build an 11 looping coaster at Jinling Happy World. The ride may not be a direct clone (there’s a whole extra loop) but it looks awfully similar to the Intamin rides at Thorpe Park and Chimelong Paradise.


We've all seen this image before and its remarkably similar to something most of us have ridden.

Beijing Jiuhua Amusement Rides Manufacturing


Being a smaller company that the ones above hasn't stopped BJA having a go at the Vekoma Motorbike design seen at Toverland and Chimelong Paradise.


This is a direct clone of Toverland's Booster Bike. Its now operational and sports a nice red paint scheme

Beijing Shibaolai Amusement Equipment

Another company famed for their knock off SLCs has branched out a bit recently with a whole host of new rides for sale. They've recently completed a clone of Maurers Skyloop coasters at Jangfu Park but perhaps most worryingly they now offer a cloned B&M Dive Machine. These guys it seems will try and sell you pretty much anything.


Perhaps the most worrying BSA offering on their site is this Shiekra Clone.


How about a Zamperla Motocoaster. I imagine it won't just be Golden Horse attracting the Zamperla Lawyers.


This Maurer ripoff is already built at Jangfu Park, complete with OSTR's as an original feature

Conclusion

In conclusion it dosn’t look like the trend of Chinese companies ripping off other rides will end any time soon, even the recent court order against Golden Horse by Zamperla is unlikely to have much effect. I must admit I’m curious to see how exactly the Chinese companies would cope with building a ride on the scale of Shiekra and judging by the BSA and Golden Horse offerings we may not have long to wait.

I have a slightly longer article with a ton more pics of different offerings at http://www.vhcoasters.com

Interesting read, moved to theme park discussion though

Ahh yes forgot we had one of these now

Well, I personally would think court cases do have effect. However they would only be effective in Europe and the US.
In China it's pretty much free for all though. For coaster companies that's a problem because China is becoming their most important market. Vekoma has a factory in China for good reason.

That said I wouldn't be in line to ride one of these knock-off coasters. Wasn't it one of those SLCs which had an accident while it had barely opened for the first time?

I don't thing any of them have had accidents yet (I could be wrong there but I've don't remember it) the Kumbak Coasters inverted coaster in Europe did though.

I've ridden several of these types of ride and they are perfectly safe, the main issue I think is experience, they don't have the experience to get the transitions quite right yet, I mean look at the transitions on this



But there seems to be progress, the Golden Horse mine train at World Joyland is at least on a par with the Vekoma Rides it apes and the new mine train at Happy Valley Tianjin actually looks pretty sweet. I just worry they will try and take on a project the size of Shiekra and fail miserably.

Really nice work documenting all of this. It is ridiculous how these designs are almost purely imitation rather than say trying to learn what makes these rides good and then emulating those things rather than make a cheap copy. Companies have started doing the latter more or less by say making their own version of an Intamin Rocket coaster but then they've gone on to make some more unique, distinct ride designs, which I would much rather see than this above.

With all forms of technology, we has a civilization won't advance unless we take in what has already been accomplished, to stand on the shoulders of giants like Newton did. But in doing that, we need to get an understanding behind what makes a ride so good and focus on that idea rather than just build something that's physically close and not aspire to eventually progress to making something better.

Really nice work documenting all of this. It is ridiculous how these designs are almost purely imitation rather than say trying to learn what makes these rides good and then emulating those things rather than make a cheap copy. Companies have started doing the latter more or less by say making their own version of an Intamin Rocket coaster but then they've gone on to make some more unique, distinct ride designs, which I would much rather see than this above.

With all forms of technology, we has a civilization won't advance unless we take in what has already been accomplished, to stand on the shoulders of giants like Newton did. But in doing that, we need to get an understanding behind what makes a ride so good and focus on that idea rather than just build something that's physically close and not aspire to eventually progress to making something better.

That's a really long way to say that if you do do new things you won't do anything new.

Well, I personally would think court cases do have effect. However they would only be effective in Europe and the US.
In China it's pretty much free for all though. For coaster companies that's a problem because China is becoming their most important market. Vekoma has a factory in China for good reason.

That said I wouldn't be in line to ride one of these knock-off coasters. Wasn't it one of those SLCs which had an accident while it had barely opened for the first time?

There was a knockoff Arrow loop-screw that derailed rather recently. Robb Alvey once filmed a video of this ride, cursing and screaming as it corkscrewed.