I just returned from a week long out-of-state trip for a wedding and work, but I managed to squeeze in a quick stop over at Six Flags Magic Mountain today to check on the status of the Lex Luthor: Drop of Doom construction.
The biggest new thing that jumps out at you is the ride sign that has been mounted:
The exterior of the queue building appears to be finished, at least the part we can see:
I hate to say this, but I’m not really that crazy about it. I like the old school, Metropolis look to the building, but it doesn’t match the sign or the rest of DC Universe. The park spent tons of money creating a very comic book looking DC Universe, with lots of bright, vibrant colors. The sign fits into that theme perfectly, but not the building:
The Daily Planet gift shop has been painted, but nothing else on the exterior yet:
Lots of work being done up on the tower today. If I were to guess, I think they are stringing all of the various cables. Look at all of them in the center of the tower:
These guys are crazy, but I certainly respect the work they do. I hope they make lots of money, because you wouldn’t get me up there for anything less than $100/hour:
You may remember a picture I took of a giant cable drum that was hanging out behind Colossus (here) back in April. If you look behind these electrical conduits, you can make out the side of it inside the base of the tower:
From a different angle, you can see just how massive the cable drum really is:
Pulling back further, you can see the size of the drum in relation to the entire base of the tower. I have no idea how the mechanics of these drop rides work, but I’m assuming the single cable from the drum pulls both gondolas up simultaneously through the use of catch cars. Once the gondolas reach the top, the catch cars release and drop the gondolas. The drum lets the cable out, dropping the catch cars back down to connect back up with the gondolas for the next ride. Am I close?
I showed an earlier picture of struts being applied between the track and the tower. Here is a shot of one finished, as a worker snakes electrical conduit around it:
Several ride pieces can still be seen lying around. I have no idea what this curved piece is, but it’s obviously going somewhere up on top:
Here’s another funky red piece waiting to be installed:
And what appears to be a couple of very long red struts:
The entire back of the queue building got a fresh coat of grey paint:
Here’s the new electrical equipment that was placed on the pad from the last update:
I hope they don’t have anything too critical attached to the other end of this cable because I’m pretty sure it’s not an OSHA-approved anchor point. Poor little tree:
welp, If they don’t paint the grey part of the building blue, then I guess we all can get used to it after a while. I just can’t wait til it opens.
I can’t imagine they would install the signs before the building was done being painted, so I think this is it.
There is still things to be done on the building. I’ve seen the concept art and it look exactly the same as I remembered other than a few details.
I haven’t seen the concept art for this. Can you please share what details are still missing?
the color of the building looks really dull…… i hope they paint it a different color
Any official date yet
And great posts
Thx
Not as of yet Bob, but with the way progress is comming along, probably some time in July. That’s just my guess, Nothing official.
Thanks for the awesome update Kurt! Really appreciate you getting there so soon after your trip.
I was at the skytower the other day and was told end of June/beginning of July.
I’m actually starting to hear from park sources that the target date is June 25th. However, that’s a Sunday, which seems odd to me, so I’m still digging.
I was guessing late June from guessing the timeframe and states all coaster contraction goes through. Instead of June 25th, probably the 23rd or 24th. That’s my friends bday weekend, maybe we will be one of the first on Lex! lol
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Im at the park today and they have all of the blue construction walls down and just a small fence up and u can see the whole site. You can look into the queue building and see the switchbacks. It looks like they are about to attach a gondala on the track to start testing. It looks so shiny.
I’ve been excited about this ride ever since they’ve announced it. I can’t wait to come out and try it. What baffles me is the park map lists this ride in the moderate thrills category. It seems like something that should be placed in the maximum thrills category, but maybe that’s just me. Of course if I were making a guide to this place I’d employ a different rating system altogether. I’d employ one similar to ratings on ski runs. For example, the kiddie rides would be green circles, water rides like Jet Stream blue squares, the spinning rides like Wonder Woman’s Lasso double blue squares, average coasters like Colossus and Revolution black diamonds, and X2, Goliath, Tatsu, Lex Luthor Drop of Doom, etc. would be double blacks.
WOW! Moderate?????? The guide stated that it’s moderate? There’s nothing Moderate about Free Falling from a 400 foot tower, also factor in, while Lex Luthor is going up and down, so is Superman. That’s the part which will get me when I ride LLDOD. Love your catagoration of rides. I cant wait to also see the 2 gondolas with the restraints on them and all finished.
Is it me or does the ride sign seem too small?
i’m really exciting to ride it
The official release date for it is June30th 2012. O__O