Early Reviews of the World’s Tallest Drop Ride, Lex Luthor Drop of Doom at Six Flags Magic Mountain
Lex Luthor Drop of Doom is here with its epic, record-setting drop of nearly 400 feet. If the insane drop wasn’t enough, riders are reporting that Superman Escape from Krypton’s cars are adding a bit of an extra wrinkle. If you happen to be riding when the cars climb the tower, you get an added thrill as the tower sways a bit.
Lex Luthor Drop of Doom has unseated former drop ride record holder, The Big Drop at Dream World in Australia. I was a bit more impressed with the concept when it was announced until I found out that The Big Drop is attached to reverse freefall coaster Tower of Terror II, in the same way that Lex and Superman share a space. At least Magic Mountain’s attraction has the added cool factor of the theme as Superman and Lex Luthor will do battle high above the Earth.
Here are some reviews that I was able to find:
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The one knock on the ride is unavoidable. With the queue sitting beneath the insanely loud Superman coaster, standing in line for Lex Luthor may prove hard on your hearing. Magic Mountain might want to hand out ear plugs to dampen the jet engine howl.
– Brady MacDonald of the LA Times Funland Blog
However, the ride is AMAZING. It seems like it never ends. The audio is great and we didn’t drop until the whole sound byte finished. It really is like an “over the shoulder lap bar”. I’m about 6 foot 2 and the OSTRs/handles didn’t even touch my shoulders.
– dylanreich on ThemeParkReview
The drop really surprised us in how smooth the drop and speed breaking are at the end of the ride. There is not a jarring halt at the bottom of the tower, but rather a firm slow down to a stop.
– Norman Gidney on MiceChat
. . .got 3 rides waiting 5 mins max each time via the single rider line. The drop is great, and the trip up the tower is fun too, it seems like it never stops! On my first ride I got lucky and had a Superman car go up the tower just as we were getting to the top, and the tower shook pretty good.
– BlakeCoaster on ThemeParkReview
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And here’s an on-ride video of Lex Luthor Drop of Doom at Six Flags Magic Mountain:
Official Lex Luthor Drop of Doom Info from Six Flags
The Coaster Guy’s On-Ride Video
The Coaster Guy’s Media Day Coverage (Tons of Photos)
Have you ridden Lex Luthor Drop of Doom? What’s your take? Leave a comment below.
Quil
I have the sudden urge to go to SFMM. Too bad it's so far away.
Matt
This looks awesome! I love drop towers, they are my favorite ride after roller coasters of course. The tallest drop tower I have been on (and my favorite) is Drop Tower at Kings Dominion. That one I believe is close to 300 feet tall, while Lex Luthor is 400! Lex Luthor looks like it will be very fun and exhilarating! I just wish that it would keep you at the top for longer, as I saw in the videos that once you reach the top you drop like 5 seconds afterward. And the loading must be horrible since it only holds 8 people per ride cycle! It does have 2 sides though but I can imagine the line would still be very long. But aside from those things this looks to be very good and thrilling. Can't wait to ride this next year when I go to Magic Mountain.
Surya
It does have 8 per side, making for 16 riders per cycle, but that's identical to regular Intamin drop towers, which have up to 4 sides of 4 riders each. Only the round ones, like the KD one have bigger capacity, but that obviously wasn't possible here. Looks AWESOME!
SwimFreak
How fast do you think those car get going? They look like they were catching the superman car on the video.
CoasterCritic
I'm not sure, but I noticed that too.
James
Superman and Lex are designed to fall at the same rate to give it that thrill. It is all about timing. Whichever ride starts to descend first will win but remember, Lex goes straight down the whole way while Superman has to pull up from the drop. That may look like Lex is catching but it really isn't. Another factor is friction with the air but superman looks to be more aerodynamic. I think Lex does get to a higher speed because I think it has a bigger drop. But then brakes are at least 75 ft up above the ground. I don't know i just think its timing. In the video you can see the timing isn't perfect.
Will P
There's nothing better than watching the Youtube videos and seing how both rides fdrop at nearly ther same time.
Gearhart
I’m going to SoCal in september but as cool as it looks I’m finding it hard to set aside an extra day just to ride this as I was just at the Mountain on Deja Vu’s last day. May wait till the “Full Throttle” project gets built.
Will P
Have a few questions regaurding Lex Luthor.
1.) Can all 4 passengers on all 4 of the sides or at the ends, are they able to get great views of the park before the Big Drop, or do those Silver Gaurd rails obstruct the view from looking down to your side?
2.) Was the reason the 2 riders on the ends of the Superman tracks unable to get a better view of looking down on Superman due to a possible conflict and run-in with the Superman and Lex vehicles?
What I found astounding, after watching the Youtube vids of the Lex Luthor riders screaming multiple times, was the 1 lady at the far end, which would be facing Scream, how she was able to put on a streight face for the entire drop. The heighest Drop I've ever dropped from was the old Parachute at Knotts Berry Farm, and the other 2 rides, were Giant Drop 220 feet and Raging Bull at Six Flags Great America in Gurnee IL. I have yet to ride any ride higher than 10 stories the last 9 years.Creative to Build to Drop towers and attatch them to another ride and 1 structure. Looks awesome and cant wait to ride.
21064a01
3 seconds turned into 5 minutes, . . . STUCK HIGH. “Drop of Doom” just became the best malfunction ever | http://twitpic.com/cpis5u
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Mike M.
Just experienced Lex Luthor Drop of Doom on a trip to Magic Mountain over Labor Day Weekend. I’d have to say that the best part of the ride is definitely the sheer sense of height you feel, especially as you are looking DOWN at Goliath. And don’t know if it was my imagination, but the ride seemed to lift with continuous pulses as if it were saying “NOPE, not done going up yet!”. The audio at the top added to the experience.
As for the drop, I’d have to say I was a little underwhelmed. The drop didn’t feel much different from Drop Tower at Kings Island, even though the former was significantly higher. I guess all drop towers feel the same after that initial acceleration. Still a pretty cool experience overall.
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