I grew up in Denver. This remains my favorite roller coaster *ever*, though I've ridden dozens in the last 50 years, hoping to equal it. The new steel pipe hanging coasters can't hold a candle to this one. My older brother and I used to run around to get back in line over and over! He now has some senior memory issues. I will send this to him, as I'm sure he'll remember those days and enjoy this video! Thanks for posting it.
They were very strict on what and how I filmed that day. I'm happy we were able to "save" this footage it was quite rugged being an analog recorder strapped to the car.
If you ever get the chance, you should try to make a visit to Knoebels in Pennsylvania. It's a free entry amusement park with a pay-per-ride or all-day wristband system. They have a ride inspired by the original Mr. Twister design, called "Twister". Watching this POV and having personally ridden Twister, I can definitely see the resemblance in the layout. If you ever got the chance to try it, maybe it'd be a cool way of reliving those memories.
I decided to add a story since this video is kind of popular, it was one of the hardest coasters to film. For safety, the park took out the seatbacks/headrests bungeed the camera down on a board that straddled the car from the front to the back. Then I slipped in under the buzz bar to hold onto the camera because the bungees were bumping the power and stop buttons. One of the most memorable rides of my life, no harm done. Also I had an old film camera. I was allowed full photo access underneath, my film didn't advance. 36 historic photos I would have loved to see.
This roller coaster lives on in the "Twister" At Knoebels Groves in Elysurg, Pa. Knoebels wanted to have Mr. Twister transported to their park piece by piece like they did for their Phoenix (one of the best rated wooden roller coasters for like eight years in a row) but where they wanted to place it they did not have enough room. So they bought the blueprints and created one by hand, in-house to fit into their constraints. It's one of their most popular. Look it up some time it's super cool. They also have the only trackless wooden bobsled coaster in the world. Another in-house design. It took over ten years to perfect and is such a fun ride.
@@amberbalogach3001 It's also because of the condition the wood on Mr Twister was in. Phoenix was a special case, as it was constructed from the hardwood once used on WW2 battleships. Most of the structural wood on the Phoenix today was there in 1947 because the wood is just so durable (it's basically tougher than if it were a hybrid with a steel structure, like another relocated wooden coaster, Comet at Great Escape, is). It was also durable enough that 5 years of abandonment didn't do any structural dammage to it. Mr Twister however had more traditional wood used in construction, after also sitting abandoned for 5 years it was more efficient for Knobles to rebuild the same design from scratch, since they do own a lumber company after all. The information about Phoenix comes from John Fetterman himself, the information about Mr Twister is easyvto infer with context clues. I think it would have been cool if they used the original trains and hardware though, rather than just a single bolt though.
Amazing footage! I wasn’t tall enough to ride Twister when it was at the old park, but spent many many hours on Twister II and glad to see it was the same ride layout. Just got back from a ride on it tonight, even! Still as fun as ever. A classic coaster!
Love reading the story and that you were the one to actually take the video. I'm glad you got a couple shots of the Wildcat roaring past the Twister station as well. My favorite 2 coasters by far.
I had been riding roller coasters for 30 years but this was my first experience of frightening airtime on a roller coaster. Since then I have logged over 400 roller coasters. Thanks for the video...
@@sWaGgYbBySッthat was my question as well. I rode the twister half a dozen times or so in my youth (The first time being when I was only four when my dad took me on it). I'm thinking if there was scary air time it was overshadowed by having the living shit beat out of me by that beast of a train. 😂
I grew up only two blocks from the original park and spent so many summers there, almost constantly. As a kid I was intimidated by roller coasters and I stuck to riding less intense rides (my favorite was the Splinter log flume). Finally, at age 11 in 1990, I got up the nerve to ride the Twister and it was a terrifying, brain-rattling experience. I swore off coasters from then on. It wasn’t until ten years later when I finally rode the Wild Chipmunk at Lakeside that I began to embrace them a little more. RIP to Mr. Twister and to my beloved home park, which I miss everyday, though I can still walk around in it in my daydreams.
@christihendricks2584 Yeah, it's completely ridiculous. That the Cyclone is standing but not operating right now scares the hell out of me. Please reopen it someday soon. Please. This is an iconic, landmark, classic coaster that is beloved. Please. 🙏
I love that last line you wrote (thought I can still walk around in it in my daydreams) it really brought me back to the years in the 80s when I went there and road MrTwister and The Wild Cat, GREAT MEMORIES....❤
I worked there the summer before. Although I never got to work Mr. Twister I was often on the Wildcat. Wonderful memories that summer, hearing the Log Ride theme over and over again for 8 hours :-) I hated running the Spider cause people would puke and you'd have to haul out the hose. The worst was the Ferris wheel, you had to balance the thing or it wouldn't go. Great times, when they closed and moved downtown it was just not the same.
The wildcat was my 99th coaster the Twister my 100th. I actually got to walk underneath and photographed the coaster in action. I took 36 wonderful photo's to find I didn't thread my film correctly. I ran out of film never got to photograph the rest of the park. Also got a tour of the dance pavilion from a groundskeeper who saw me as a historian..
Definitely the best wooden rollercoaster ever made. Through the years the coasters have been upgraded/perfected, but still won't come anywhere close to being as good as Mr Twister.
The sad part was it took so long to get the video equipment tied down by the time it was done the park opened and we could not film the wildcat (my 99th coaster)
the front seat was the best place to sit, but if you were feeling adventurous, you'd sometimes lose contact with the track in the very back seat. Great coaster, but I actually liked the Wildcat even more.
Oh, no... we always chose the back seat as it would fly over the crest of each hill at nearly full speed. The front is slower before the first half of the train was over & it picked up speed. We loved that speed!
I loved that you came at the tunnel at kind of an angle, which you can see in the videos. This roller coaster was extremely forceful, which you cannot feel while watching a video. But I am so glad the video exists. Thank you. My favorite part of this ride was the first drop, which you can almost feel the steepness watching the video.
This looks slower than it actually was. The reason for that is the camera doesn't have a wide-enough angle lens. It was the early 90s after all. You can see this same effect if your a passenger in a car and you zoom the camera in a bit and then point it forward. Feels like the car is going super slow.
To me the ride looks slower in the video than it was in real life. The tunnel section was small and forceful. My guess is coasters have to built to current safety standards, or due to maintenance costs ride needs to be less forceful.
@@rodcody7278 Twister at Knobles (the true successor) is better than this looks to be, it's basically an identical design for the prime ride track with the lift and break run redesigned. Knowing who owned both Twister probably is better than Mr Twister was in it's final days because the stellar maintenance allows it to be smoother and therefore faster. I'm way too young to have ridden the original though so I would differ to people who have.
@@Loopyguy I think the coaster looks slower in the video because the view is relatively narrow-angle. The optical-illusion expert Akiyoshi Kitaoka, who is also a rail fan, has posted a lot of videos about this on Twitter--if you shoot out the front of a moving train, the train looks to be moving much faster in a very wide-angle shot than in a narrow-angle one, probably because you see the nearby scenery at the margins of the wide-angle view flashing by rapidly. Speaking as someone who also remembers Mr. Twister from way back, and remembers it as a wild ride... this video is an amazing piece of history. It's easily the best genuine POV of this ride that you can find on the Internet.
@@urbex_coasters I've been on the Knoebels Twister enough times to say that it really flies through its layout, and actually feels like more of a twister than Mister Twister was.
Fantastic video of one of the greatest wooden rollercoasters the world has seen. The old Elitches was so much better than the current one. The ride set ups made the park appear bigger than it actually was. The new Twister II and Twister III TORNADO, is a very poor representation of a great ride. If they were not going to rebuild the original in the correct way, they should never have made them.
It's cool to see this. Any chance you'd be willing to edit a side by side POV with this ride's successor, Twister at Knobles so we can see the similarities? This looks slower than Twister felt but sometimes a POV will do that.
Well we got permission to film. We got to the park early. Back then we had the shoulder VHS recorders. They didn't want it hand held. So they bolted a board to the car and I managed the camera. One of my main travelling friends opted to not get that experience. The park opened and took one train out of circuit. The real tragedy of the day was they wouldn't let us film the wildcat (my 100th coaster) and the film didn't not advance in my (photograph) camera. I had full reign under two coasters 36 historical images.. gone
![ILLSLICK - KILLSHOT REMIX [FULL VERSION]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/RIK8RrqIAzE/mqdefault.jpg)
It’s so cool you can see a white sidewinder in the background. This was before my time so it is insane to think how old that coaster is.
I grew up in Denver. This remains my favorite roller coaster *ever*, though I've ridden dozens in the last 50 years, hoping to equal it. The new steel pipe hanging coasters can't hold a candle to this one. My older brother and I used to run around to get back in line over and over! He now has some senior memory issues. I will send this to him, as I'm sure he'll remember those days and enjoy this video! Thanks for posting it.
They were very strict on what and how I filmed that day. I'm happy we were able to "save" this footage it was quite rugged being an analog recorder strapped to the car.
If you ever get the chance, you should try to make a visit to Knoebels in Pennsylvania. It's a free entry amusement park with a pay-per-ride or all-day wristband system. They have a ride inspired by the original Mr. Twister design, called "Twister". Watching this POV and having personally ridden Twister, I can definitely see the resemblance in the layout. If you ever got the chance to try it, maybe it'd be a cool way of reliving those memories.
I decided to add a story since this video is kind of popular, it was one of the hardest coasters to film. For safety, the park took out the seatbacks/headrests bungeed the camera down on a board that straddled the car from the front to the back. Then I slipped in under the buzz bar to hold onto the camera because the bungees were bumping the power and stop buttons. One of the most memorable rides of my life, no harm done. Also I had an old film camera. I was allowed full photo access underneath, my film didn't advance. 36 historic photos I would have loved to see.
This roller coaster lives on in the "Twister" At Knoebels Groves in Elysurg, Pa. Knoebels wanted to have Mr. Twister transported to their park piece by piece like they did for their Phoenix (one of the best rated wooden roller coasters for like eight years in a row) but where they wanted to place it they did not have enough room. So they bought the blueprints and created one by hand, in-house to fit into their constraints. It's one of their most popular. Look it up some time it's super cool. They also have the only trackless wooden bobsled coaster in the world. Another in-house design. It took over ten years to perfect and is such a fun ride.
@@amberbalogach3001 It's also because of the condition the wood on Mr Twister was in. Phoenix was a special case, as it was constructed from the hardwood once used on WW2 battleships. Most of the structural wood on the Phoenix today was there in 1947 because the wood is just so durable (it's basically tougher than if it were a hybrid with a steel structure, like another relocated wooden coaster, Comet at Great Escape, is). It was also durable enough that 5 years of abandonment didn't do any structural dammage to it. Mr Twister however had more traditional wood used in construction, after also sitting abandoned for 5 years it was more efficient for Knobles to rebuild the same design from scratch, since they do own a lumber company after all. The information about Phoenix comes from John Fetterman himself, the information about Mr Twister is easyvto infer with context clues. I think it would have been cool if they used the original trains and hardware though, rather than just a single bolt though.
Amazing footage! I wasn’t tall enough to ride Twister when it was at the old park, but spent many many hours on Twister II and glad to see it was the same ride layout. Just got back from a ride on it tonight, even! Still as fun as ever. A classic coaster!
Love reading the story and that you were the one to actually take the video. I'm glad you got a couple shots of the Wildcat roaring past the Twister station as well. My favorite 2 coasters by far.
I had been riding roller coasters for 30 years but this was my first experience of frightening airtime on a roller coaster. Since then I have logged over 400 roller coasters. Thanks for the video...
Airtime?
@@sWaGgYbBySッthat was my question as well. I rode the twister half a dozen times or so in my youth (The first time being when I was only four when my dad took me on it). I'm thinking if there was scary air time it was overshadowed by having the living shit beat out of me by that beast of a train. 😂
I grew up only two blocks from the original park and spent so many summers there, almost constantly. As a kid I was intimidated by roller coasters and I stuck to riding less intense rides (my favorite was the Splinter log flume). Finally, at age 11 in 1990, I got up the nerve to ride the Twister and it was a terrifying, brain-rattling experience. I swore off coasters from then on. It wasn’t until ten years later when I finally rode the Wild Chipmunk at Lakeside that I began to embrace them a little more. RIP to Mr. Twister and to my beloved home park, which I miss everyday, though I can still walk around in it in my daydreams.
I'll miss the Wildcat too it was my 99th coaster, and Twister my 100th.
It sickens me that the cyclone at lakeside is being held hostage by a frivolous lawsuit from a crazy enthusiast.
@christihendricks2584 Yeah, it's completely ridiculous. That the Cyclone is standing but not operating right now scares the hell out of me. Please reopen it someday soon. Please. This is an iconic, landmark, classic coaster that is beloved. Please. 🙏
I love that last line you wrote (thought I can still walk around in it in my daydreams) it really brought me back to the years in the 80s when I went there and road MrTwister and The Wild Cat, GREAT MEMORIES....❤
These was the good ole days!!
Indeed
I worked there the summer before. Although I never got to work Mr. Twister I was often on the Wildcat. Wonderful memories that summer, hearing the Log Ride theme over and over again for 8 hours :-) I hated running the Spider cause people would puke and you'd have to haul out the hose. The worst was the Ferris wheel, you had to balance the thing or it wouldn't go. Great times, when they closed and moved downtown it was just not the same.
The wildcat was my 99th coaster the Twister my 100th. I actually got to walk underneath and photographed the coaster in action. I took 36 wonderful photo's to find I didn't thread my film correctly. I ran out of film never got to photograph the rest of the park. Also got a tour of the dance pavilion from a groundskeeper who saw me as a historian..
Definitely the best wooden rollercoaster ever made. Through the years the coasters have been upgraded/perfected, but still won't come anywhere close to being as good as Mr Twister.
Superb. You get a sense of how steep and twisted it was. Thanks for sharing!
The sad part was it took so long to get the video equipment tied down by the time it was done the park opened and we could not film the wildcat (my 99th coaster)
This and Wildcat started me on my roller coaster freak journey. Expensive hobby but so worth it, lol. Hear me Hak? I'm coming for ya!
the front seat was the best place to sit, but if you were feeling adventurous, you'd sometimes lose contact with the track in the very back seat. Great coaster, but I actually liked the Wildcat even more.
Oh, no... we always chose the back seat as it would fly over the crest of each hill at nearly full speed. The front is slower before the first half of the train was over & it picked up speed. We loved that speed!
I loved the speed entering what looked to be the smallest tunnel in the world.
I loved that you came at the tunnel at kind of an angle, which you can see in the videos. This roller coaster was extremely forceful, which you cannot feel while watching a video. But I am so glad the video exists. Thank you. My favorite part of this ride was the first drop, which you can almost feel the steepness watching the video.
This looks slower than it actually was. The reason for that is the camera doesn't have a wide-enough angle lens. It was the early 90s after all. You can see this same effect if your a passenger in a car and you zoom the camera in a bit and then point it forward. Feels like the car is going super slow.
What a ride !!
Yeah, there are houses there now.
The Knoebels Twister is now the same age as Mr. Twister was when this was filmed.
I remember the drop part of this ride being shown in the Little Einsteins.
All these years have gone by. I still remember the turn. I am pathetic.
I call it passionate. I've ridden just over 800 coasters and there are moments in time I'll never forget
Why does this look way better than the ride that succeeded it?
To me the ride looks slower in the video than it was in real life. The tunnel section was small and forceful. My guess is coasters have to built to current safety standards, or due to maintenance costs ride needs to be less forceful.
Because it was
@@rodcody7278 Twister at Knobles (the true successor) is better than this looks to be, it's basically an identical design for the prime ride track with the lift and break run redesigned. Knowing who owned both Twister probably is better than Mr Twister was in it's final days because the stellar maintenance allows it to be smoother and therefore faster. I'm way too young to have ridden the original though so I would differ to people who have.
@@Loopyguy I think the coaster looks slower in the video because the view is relatively narrow-angle. The optical-illusion expert Akiyoshi Kitaoka, who is also a rail fan, has posted a lot of videos about this on Twitter--if you shoot out the front of a moving train, the train looks to be moving much faster in a very wide-angle shot than in a narrow-angle one, probably because you see the nearby scenery at the margins of the wide-angle view flashing by rapidly.
Speaking as someone who also remembers Mr. Twister from way back, and remembers it as a wild ride... this video is an amazing piece of history. It's easily the best genuine POV of this ride that you can find on the Internet.
@@urbex_coasters I've been on the Knoebels Twister enough times to say that it really flies through its layout, and actually feels like more of a twister than Mister Twister was.
Fantastic video of one of the greatest wooden rollercoasters the world has seen. The old Elitches was so much better than the current one. The ride set ups made the park appear bigger than it actually was. The new Twister II and Twister III TORNADO, is a very poor representation of a great ride. If they were not going to rebuild the original in the correct way, they should never have made them.
Mr, Twisterrrr??? What is that a Mr twister pin ON YOUR UNIFORM!!!!
It's cool to see this. Any chance you'd be willing to edit a side by side POV with this ride's successor, Twister at Knobles so we can see the similarities? This looks slower than Twister felt but sometimes a POV will do that.
I'd just open them up in different browsers and place them side by side. The dual lift at Knoebel's makes the rides differ immediately.
@@Loopyguy I know, I'm talking about starting them both at the highest point.
Wow I’m fascinated by the transfer track. What were they doing that for?
Well we got permission to film. We got to the park early. Back then we had the shoulder VHS recorders. They didn't want it hand held. So they bolted a board to the car and I managed the camera. One of my main travelling friends opted to not get that experience. The park opened and took one train out of circuit. The real tragedy of the day was they wouldn't let us film the wildcat (my 100th coaster) and the film didn't not advance in my (photograph) camera. I had full reign under two coasters 36 historical images.. gone
@@Loopyguy sheeeeesh that hurts my heart! 💔 well I’m glad this one was salvaged!
Random question: did you ever film Batman & Robin: The Chiller?
Old coasters have Switch tracks?