Eric's Planet—Blog of Doom

OK, we already know that gloom and doom is what makes this blog run, but this is really a play on words. Today's episode is a quick review and write-up of my recent experience aboard the newest ride at Six Flags Magic Mountain: Lex Luthor: Drop of Doom.

Everyone on my planet and Earth knows that I'm quite the theme park fan. So when I am contacted by our local SoCal ACE rep, Steve Berto, about attending a new ride opening, I try to attend if possible. When I was invited to be one of only 16 lucky ACE members to attend the media event for this new ride, I jumped right on it. Lo and behold, I got my name in just in time and was included on the guest list. With some luck, my buddy and fellow ACEer Roger Yoshida also got on the list, so we arranged to go out to the park together.

Roger Yoshida

I don't know how long this question has been bounced around within Magic Mountain's engineering department, but at some point it was deemed feasible to install such a ride here in our hemisphere. And just to throw a little sand in their eyes, our ride would claim the title of world's tallest drop ride by going just a few feet higher. For years, people have been saying that Magic Mountain was missing a great opportunity by not having a drop ride on the side of this tower. After all, if the single-track Australian counterpart of Superman (known there as Tower of Terror) could have such a ride on the side of its tower, why not Magic Mountain?

We were asked to arrive about 4:30am. (That's 0-dark-thirty to some of you.) Upon arrival, we were escorted into the back side of the park and walked over to the boarding area of Lex Luthor: Drop of Doom. This is located at the base of the infamous 415-foot tall Superman tower, a park landmark since its opening in 1997. It was still foggy when riders began taking their plunge with members of the media. In fact, Roger and I finally got on about 5:15, and after a short delay were hoisted to the top of the tower. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture (no cameras allowed on the ride), but the top of the tower was higher than the fog level, so we got up above the fog and witnessed the eerie sight of fog with a few roller coasters sticking out of the top of it—not unlike being above the clouds on a plane with tall buildings rising above the clouds.

Magic Mountain's Superman tower shrouded in fog.

Climbing the tower was interesting in itself. Because of the magnetic brakes that would eventually slow us down, our climb was rather slow. The winch hauling us up had to work against those magnetic forces. But once we got over the top of where the magnetic strip began, our ascent sped up quite noticeably. Once high above the fog, we heard music. Our rate of climb slowed, then stopped as Lex Luthor's voice boomed out:

"Today is your lucky day. Today your life changes forever. And this may very well be the high point of your insignificant existence."

Lex meant business, because just as that audio clip ended, our car was released and sent to its doom. We fell, and fell some more. Then we fell right into the fog and kept falling. Suddenly, something grabbed our car and brought us to a firm, yet smooth stop. After lowering us gently to where we got on, our harnesses were released and we were free to go get in line again. Perhaps doom isn't so bad after all.

Eight riders (and eight more on the other side) await their drop to doom.

One of the highlights of our day was the fact that Magic Mountain supplied us with breakfast. Not just coffee and donuts as we were told, but that and muffins and bagels and pastries and water and soda. All we wanted, on the house.

The official ride opening presentation for the media was scheduled to begin at 11am. Park president Bonnie Rabjohn would be joined by guests, actor Michael Rosenbaum (who plays Lex Luthor on the Smallville TV series), and Stanley Cup champion L.A. Kings player Dustin Penner. Not long before that, I was asked to be one of the riders aboard Lex Luthor during the presentation, while Roger was asked to be one of the riders on Superman--Escape From Krypton. What they did was launch the two rides together to top off the media presentation and officially open the world's tallest drop tower. Riding Lex Luthor with a Superman car going up the tower was quite an experience. The tower swayed very noticeably a couple of feet in each direction, adding an extra thrill to the one already included in the 400-foot drop.

One of the Lex Luthor cars in the loading position. The other one faces the opposite
direction on the opposite side of the tower. I rode twice on this side, and nine times
on the other side.

As a special bonus, all media attendees (including us ACE members) were given a wristband that got us into Lex Luthor for unlimited rides until 2pm (general public need not apply), as well as lunch—all the pizza, pasta, salad, breadsticks, and dessert we wanted. Needless to say, Roger and I took advantage.

Unfortunately, I had some financial business to take care of, so Roger and I had to leave about 1pm. Before leaving, we took one more ride on Lex Luthor, bringing my day's total to 11 rides. Had I not had business to do, we'd have stayed for a few hours despite being fairly tired. No problem, though. We'll no doubt get back out to the park later this year.