mantis rumor

I am not very sure how accurate this is, but I heard somewhere that Mantis is going to be repainted black and red and will be eventually converted into a floorless.

I was also told that some painting has already been started on the Mantis station. I was not told if there were any pictures anywhere, but I am going to the pointbuzz event on the 17th so I will be able to confirm whether or not it has been painted. if it has, I will be sure to take some pictures.

I am not sure how reliable the source I heard this rumor from is, but it was very interesting so I thought I'd throw it out here for debate.

On CP's facebook page they had pictures of Mantis' repainting, and the slides at Soak City. I haven't seen them, but I was told about them. If the paint in that picture is the same color then we can throw this rumor out.

The floorless rumor always amuses me. They would have to basically demolish the station to put them in. How else would you retract the floor? Have riders leap into the seats? And I'm sure B&M would say no anyway.

How many times has this rumor made the rounds...shouldn't we update it and say they are turning it into a wing-rider? ;)

I would be greatly upset if they decided to paint Mantis. Personally, I think it's one of the best paint jobs in the park and definitely one of the most photogenic.

Here's a cropped view of Mantis from the photo Cedar Point posted earlier in the week.

Well the station has been painted red....

IMO, I would LOVE to see it converted into a floorless. I never have and never will like stand up coasters. There's a reason no new ones have been built since 1999.

Can somebody even find out if it's possible to change a B&M stand up to a floorless?

I've never had a problem with Mantis, and Chang at Kentucky Kingdom (now Green Lantern at Great Adventure) was one of my favorites.

Im sure it is possible to convert one. But you would have to have B&M to agree with it.

I kind of feel like Mantis would be incredibly dull if it were a floorless.

The station has needed an update for a while now, IMO. I like the red. I just hope they do something about those lights overhead. Sure, it's unique, but it looks like the station was re-purposed for Mantis. It doesn't match.

Why would B&M say "no" to converting Mantis to a Floorless? Money talks, and I doubt they expect to sell another stand-up coaster.

^ Yes money does talk, but does anyone really think that Mantis' ridership is down so much to justify Cedar Fair putting up that much money for some type of conversion instead of just putting in a new ride?

And it has been said before, but the heartlines for the two riding styles are different, even if just slightly. That means that it might put too much force on the riders or produce other forces on the train that could be problematic. Plus you would have to completely rework the station.

No B&M Standup is ever going to be converted to a floorless.

I wouldn't say never, but it is pretty unlikely. The whole middle part of the station would have to be torn out. I don't know about the g-forces though. I think the standup produces much more positive g-forces than a floorless.

Why would B&M have to agree to anything? Cedar Point owns the coaster they can do anything they want to it.

B&M told Universal that they didn't agree with the launch portion of the Hulk. Yet they still built the ride and just made Universal find their own way to launch the trains. Why couldn't Cedar Point do the same thing in retro fitting the ride if B&M doesn't agree?

Because b&m would have to make the new trains. They could refuse to do it if there were safety issues or other things. If the new floorless trains caused an accident that the standup ones wouldn't have caused, Cedar Point could end up suing B&M.

Not if B&M puts it in the contract. "We'll sell you the trains, but we don't agree with what you're doing and you can't sue"

That way they make a profit and get out of the responsibility. It's the same thing they did with the Hulk.

Not to mention if CP really wanted to they could send the trains from Dominator to the Point and then buy new trains for that one. There are plenty of ways around it.

So the overall theme here is there's a ton of hoops that Cedar Fair would have to jump through in order to make Mantis a floor-less so it's probably never going to happen.

If it were meant to be floorless, it would have already been done. This rumor always brings a smile to my face. Keep the rumors coming people!

SSL488 said:
Because b&m would have to make the new trains. They could refuse to do it if there were safety issues or other things. If the new floorless trains caused an accident that the standup ones wouldn't have caused, Cedar Point could end up suing B&M.

B&M isn't the only manufacturer that makes floor-less trains. Gerstlauer, S&S, Vekoma, and Maurer Söhne all make floor-less trains. That would be very odd though if CP had a Maurer Söhne train on a B&M coaster.

The Incredible Hulk has a launch, but it wasn't supplied by B&M. So an outside company built the launch system.