Six Flags introduces its new Thrill Glider for 2027

Spaceballs: The Coaster, the Spaceballs Coaster

Sure. They delayed this reveal a full week and gave us this??? I sure hope Vekoma got a kickback for Six Flags using their model name for this. They could have reutilized Quantum Accelerator, or some variant that they already have trademarked, but instead went with the most lame coaster name ever. I guess we should just start calling coasters by their model now, so we can ride Hypercoaster, Flyer, 4-D, and Floorless before lunch and Woodie, Mine Train, Single Rail, and Stand-Up before we leave for the day.

This pretty much looks like a cross between a Vekoma invert and their 2nd-gen flyer (like F.L.Y.). The seats appear more accessible and with fewer moving parts than F.L.Y., but should provide a similar experience. All the hexagons seem strange - maybe that inclusion is what forced the delay in the announcement - but I guess it's better than nothing. Though with a track above and in a prone position, but not fully exposed, it will not create the same head/foot-chopper sensation that you get with flying, wing, or inverted coasters. Also, I can't believe they had an extra week to prep this, and they couldn't create a POV that shows how the coaster will be oriented in the park with ZERO references to existing rides or structures in the video. Given the length and layout shown, it looks like there could be a few interactions with other attractions, but not a single one is shown in the POV, just the silly hexagons.

Using the model name as the coaster name, especially for something that appears to have some amount of effort put into the theming, is incredibly lame. Trying to advertise this with a bunch of records when it's the only one of its type is also extremely sad. However, the coaster itself does look quite fun, and if it rides similarly to other modern Vekomas, should wind up landing in the upper tier of SFMM's coaster collection. I am very concerned about capacity, however...two trains of sixteen passengers is probably going to give this ride a throughput level in the same ballpark as West Coast Racers, and that ride still regularly pulls waits of 30-60 minutes on an average day despite not being a headliner.

"Thrill Glider" may not be original to us, but it isn't a bad name, I would certainly prefer it to "Quantum Accelerator" which sounds ridiculous IMO. I don't think the name will become ubiquitous like Boomerang did.

This looks like a really solid addition to Magic Mountain. Its got a nice long layout, it looks nice (assuming it will look like it does in the animation), fits in well with the terrain and landscape, and has a nice custom build into the mountain. Its definitely a thrill coaster but its not super-intimidating so those more intimidated by the massive coasters there may choose to get on this. I feel like its a modern version of what Ninja was back in the 80s, so now they can get rid of that and people won't be so upset (I realize Ninja is more of a family friendly coaster than this, but back in the 80s it was considered a high thrill coaster). The only potential downside I can see with this ride is that its a prototype so we don't really know what to expect in terms of comfort and reliability, but Vekoma has been knocking it out of the park in the last decade on both of those fronts, so knowing that gave them the confidence to move forward with this.

Unfortunately for SFMM this doesn't solve their X2 problem and I wonder if the closure of that will lead to a huge drop of business, even with a well rated new coaster, similar to what happened at SFGAdv where they removed Kingda Ka and opened the Flash the same year and had one of their worst seasons ever. Again, it would not surprise me to see Arie Force One making its way to SFMM for 2028.

And in 20 years this ride will be closed, refurbished, and reintroduced as "Thrill Glider's Revenge."

Tatsu for kids