Long Lost Kings Island Proposed Coaster Rediscovered
When a park chooses a roller coaster to build, they often listen to multiple competing bids. Usually information about the bids never becomes public information, however a recently discovered article from 1987 provides insight into the decision making process.
After the Bat was demolished, Kings Island was looking for a new signature coaster. When it became time to listen to potential manufacturers, several emerged. As described in an 1987 Cincinnati Enquirer article:
“There were eventually six bidders – two from the U.S. two from West Germany, and one each from Switzerland and Japan. The Japanese firm, Togo Japan Inc., which built King Cobra proposed a ride called Cat and Mouse, in which six individual passenger cars would race around a looping track.”
In short the potential manufacturers were:
- Arrow (Multi-Inversion Coaster)
- Schwarzkopf (Multi-Inversion Coaster)
- Mack Rides (Bobsled Coaster)
- Intamin (Flying Turns/Bobsled)
- Togo (Cat and Mouse Dueling)
- Unknown Party – Rumored to be Dinn
In the end, the Arrow concept was chosen, and Vortex (seen below) was built.
Now, we started to wonder… just what was the proposed Togo concept? Fortunately, we have an answer. Below is how the TOGO Cat & Mouse coaster would have looked. The dueling layout and near miss elements were certainly ahead of the times as the only coasters even similar prior to this were racing coasters.
We re-created the Togo Cat and Mouse coaster based off the original concepts — so fans can take a virtual ride on a coaster that could have changed history. The ride features two 75 foot lifts, two loops, several airtime hills, and descending airtime-filled helix — with speeds exceeding 48 MPH along its 1800 foot course.
Take a virtual ride right now on Cat & Mouse!
Of course the Cat & Mouse might not compare to modern day roller coasters, but it’s a pretty amazing coaster for that time period. A similar coaster (Windjammer) was eventually installed at Knott’s Berry Farm 13 years after this was proposed, so Cat & Mouse was certainly ahead of the curve as it would have been the “world’s first dueling coaster” (not to be confused with racing coasters). It’s also worth noting this coaster would have been manufactured in Japan, so it would have been very unlikely to have the same issues as Windjammer at Knott’s. Would it have been better than Windjammer? The world can only speculate…
Are you happy Arrow’s VORTEX was chosen? or would you rather have seen TOGO’s Cat & Mouse coaster? Let us know in the comments below or on our socials!
For tickets and more information about Kings Island, visit the official Kings Island website by clicking here.
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