17 replies to this topic

[coastercrazy10]

I got this idea yesterday and I wanted to basically type up the site's history and how my own perspective and K'Nex history ties in with it. This is going to be long and I will break it up into several parts that are more digestible. Hope it's not too boring, and I encourage the rest of you to do the same if you so please. Just keep it in this thread though so there aren't duplicate threads. Anyway, lets get on with it.

To say I was a creative child was a bit of an understatement. Even as a toddler I was stacking things up, lining things up, and making things out of my toys. Typical creativity, probably, but my parents insist that I was more creative than my brother as an infant, as well as borderline obsessive beginning my toddler years. Every day I took every hot wheel I had and lined them up bumper to bumper on the couch, perfectly straight. I spent hours making sure they were right. I played with my dad's legos when I was old enough to handle it and I loved it, but I was frustrated because he had thrown out all his instructions and I was too young to make my own stuff up.

Christmas 1996 was the day that warped me into the K'Nex enthusiast I am today. At five years old my brother and I received our first K'Nex sets from my grandparents. My brother, only being three, was obviously disinterested because he was simply too young to understand the process of building something. I, however, spent all day building everything I could from the manual. I continued and eventually built everything that set I could (I believe it was a 40 model set), and then I built everything from my brother's set. I couldn't get enough. I started combining sets and building things that, although archaic by today's standards, were really stimulating for me that I really enjoyed.

I believe I acquired a few more sets that year, but the Christmas of 1997 was where things started getting serious. I was given the original roller coaster by my parents and I pretty much reacted like that kid who got an N64 for christmas whose video is so popular on YouTube (search n64 kid reaction or something like that). I built that thing in two days and would have built it faster if I didn't have to go to my grandparents' house that afternoon and evening. At six years old I built that monster and figured out why it wasn't working and fixed it to make it work. I was extremely proud and so were my parents. I don't think either of us knew where K'Nex could go from there and where I would end up with my hobby.

The years passed and I obtained more sets including the Trampoline Tower, the power tower crane, robot worlds, K-Force Defense Station, as well as several cyber k'nex sets and other smaller sets. I pretty much got a big set every year or two for either my birthday or Christmas. In 2001, however, I received the Screamin' Serpent for Christmas from my parents. I couldn't believe how much different the SS was from the original, and how much better the whole set was. I easily built it in a few hours and (stupidly) built the SS Jr. right after. I loved the set and tried to do a lot with just the one SS worth of track but I didn't have much luck as there wasn't much that could be done.

I continued experimenting with K'Nex though and developed several (shoddy) roller coasters during that Christmas and the summer of 2003 when my brother showed me a new TV commercial for the Rippin' Rocket roller coaster that was supposed to come out that Christmas. I was so excited to see the boosters and what kind of difference they would make on the SS trains that I already had. The same grandparents who got me my first K'Nex set bought me the Rippin' Rocket and I put it together in about 2 hours on Christmas eve. My entire family was impressed, though I was more excited to see it run, as well as to get home and start building bigger and better things with my two roller coaster sets.

My first coaster that I would say I built as a custom ride was called "First Coaster" since I wasn't a member here at the time. It was actually intended to be a 4D coaster. It was very simple, a lift, a lie to fly on a turn, a vertical drop, a few bunny hops, and then a fly to lie turning into the lift. It wasn't spectacular but it was truly my first custom coaster. About this time I discovered SSCoasters.net and (as corny as it sounds), it changed my life. Legitimately, it did. K'Nex is such a huge part of my life because it's such a passion, and I have SSC to blame for that

Being 12 I was pretty computer illiterate and I was having a hard time registering. Basically, SSC was still bgtguide.sscoasters.net and was part of a webring of K'Nex sites (for those of you not familiar, it's basically a group of sites that can be accessed from a separate page with some info, like a really narrow google search result). I was trying to register on the webring and not here (D'oh). I finally figured it out over spring break while I was on vacation in California as my family was visiting Magic Mountain.

However, between the time I found SSC and successfully joined, I am pretty sure I looked at every coaster in the gallery. I was amazed at the size and number of coasters that some of the more prolific builders had made, specifically Westside7th and coasterguy27. I was also in awe at Oasis, which I still maintain is this site's quintessential coaster and should NEVER be forgotten. Coastergeekrct was still building, as was Ace o' spades (formerly known as XCoolDude). SSCoasters himself was still a somewhat active member when I joined but he wasn't building anymore. BGT was primarily focused on bgtguide and really only provided the backend support here at the time.

The very first gallery is actually about 3-4 iterations before the current gallery we have and unfortunately all the pictures from there are gone. There were some incredibly creative models and many were featured as Model of the Months (similar to TM now, but on a monthly basis as the name suggests). Again, by todays standards these coasters were atrocious in terms of smoothness and realism, but in those days we were building to have fun, not to impress or show off (okay, well West was building to break records, but he's the exception lol).

Other notable members of the time were sixflagsfreak56 (the first admin that was not originally an admin when the site was started), Shamu, Tyrant, Da Squriel (notable for mostly negative reasons), as well as the aforementioned coasterguy27, Westside7th, and coasterfreak11. I will tell you all right now that coasterfreak11 was and continues to be my biggest inspiration. Oasis was way smoother than anything else and was built during the very very early years of custom K'Nex coasters, and although some of you may disagree I think it's still one of the best coasters ever built here. I always vote for it in MMM unless it's up against one of my coasters, in which case I vote for my own lol.

(continued in next post)

-Ben

[coastercrazy10]

So I fell in love with the SSC community and when I came back home I announced the coaster I had been working on in the interim between my first one and then. Again, a very creative name, I called it "The Unnamed Roller Coaster" because I was just that uncreative. I received very little attention for the coaster which was to be expected, because after all it was atrocious. I continued building less than good coasters for a while, including Crystal Revolver, an Inverted Fishhook, and Smooth Criminal. I obtained another SS set as well as an ATT motor for $10, bringing my coaster set count to 3.

My breakthrough model was called Fireball, and it was inspired by a member on here whose name was "Mr. Poo". I kid you not. He used blue rod cubes for all his supports and made some very creative coasters, most of which I admired. I used his support style and created a wooden coaster infused with an Oasis-like layout type (out and back, which is how most coasters back then were). Again, not great by today's standards but the standout element was the Rose Bowl. I was the first member to do something like that and my element came out very well, and it earned me a lot of recognition. I won my only Model of the Month as a result and I finally felt accepted as part of the community. I built other coasters around that time too, including my first Joker's Jinx recreation and a Windstorm recreation. Both were met with reasonably positive reception and I began making a name for myself.

A the same time, SSC was really picking up. Matt Hendrix (coasterfreak11) was hard at work building other rides, notably duelers and a wild mouse coaster, as well as adding flat rides and another launched coaster to the K'Nex amusement park in his room. Tyrant was experimenting with CAD and just being ridiculously awesome in general. GregM had made a name for himself around when I joined with coasters like Race Thru the Clouds and continued his tenure and was well respected. Another member called Gravitiatic was building some really impressive rides for the time, and it's a shame his pictures were lost. Rollerdude (now Antinos) was incredibly prolific and built a crapload of models, which were starting to get good at this point (keep in mind we were all young at the time and our skills hadn't progressed very far, so everything was varying shades of "cool!"). Jogumpie had joined and was building very large coasters, but like everything else of the time they were very experimental and nobody was building to a high level of realism, although smoothness was beginning to be more and more important. Westside7th and coasterguy27 continued to innovate and lead the pack in terms of respect and building skill.

Around this time, three main things happened. First of all, we started using slipping. Yes, it took this long to figure out about slipping (heartlining), but it became HUGE and the effort was definitely spearheaded by Marc (Antinos). Next, we were able to modify boosters to be used with SS cars (SixFlagsFreak and myself were instrumental in this). And finally, coastergeekrct used tube supports for the first time. Yep, we had tube supports as early as 2004. It didn't catch on and the idea was fairly unused except for the occasional single support (I remember Marc using this on a launched coaster). coasterfreak11 and I were the first to use modified boosters to any extent.

At this time, things became extreme and experimental. It sounds a bit odd, but it's the best way to describe it. We started seeing very compact, intense layouts and LOT of inversions. Examples of this are Rollerdude's Magma, Westside7th's Desert Eagle, my Invigoration, several of coasterguy27's coasters, and many others. With the start of slipping we began to focus more on realism although many coasters built were still unfeasible in the real world. Out and back hypers were fairly big at this point too, and Westside7th's Centaur was the first of its kind. Other members, including jumpboyb and myself followed suit with our own large hyper coasters (cerberus and URGENCY, respectively). This point in time is kind of a blur because so much was happening but somewhere around this time is where we started making realistic coasters. I'm sure this was at least in some part helped along by Westside7th, whose creations were always really well done, especially Invertigo. During this time I built my 20 foot Kingda Ka and my only full park, which was actually a school project. Things were getting smoother, more realistic, and better and there began to be a huge separation from veterans and new members.

The separation wasn't too bad at first, but there were lots of flame wars breaking out and a lot of newer members were coming around and causing trouble. Kevin (pkiknex25) was an exception and was building awesome stuff from the get go and was only getting better. He fit in with the excellent models being built. A huge debate started regarding radii supports at this point too. A member called roller coaster kid had been building fairly crappy models ridiculously quickly for a few months and he started using radii supports to build wooden coasters. All of a sudden his track shaping got much better but I disliked how his radii supports didn't vary in radius. I thought it made the coaster look bad because fast turns had the same radius as slow turns and it was just odd to me. I was in the minority and received a fair bit of bashing, but I didn't let that deter me from my opinion. I maintained my disdain for constant radii supports and was constantly trying to figure out ways to do radii supports that were more flexible. I didn't totally succeed until 2009 with Diamondback, though.

This was when I built Nitro. Many people, including myself, maintain that Nitro was a huge turning point for SSC. It was the first successful mega coaster that was not a simple out 'n' back and was built on a large scale. NitroRyder33 (aka Ryan) attempted to build Nitro once before but converted it to what we know as Venom now, and tried to dissuade me from building it as it would be "too hard". I ignored his advice and built the coaster. A then-massive 6 foot Mega Coaster recreation took the community by storm and created a lot of controversy. I used a tire drive system because we didn't have track strengtheners at this point, but we were using grey rods instead of flexis pretty consistently. I believe if I had the track strengtheners at my disposal I wouldn't have needed the tire drive and one day I'd love to rebuild Nitro and give it a modern treatment. I used tube supports on the lift which was the first time any custom used tubes in any substantial capacity. Overall, Nitro was extremely innovative and even though it's bumpy and misshapen in places, it was mindblowing at the time. It stands as one of two successful coasters of that scale, the other being Diamondback.

The competition I entered Nitro into was very heated. I was against Sawdust, a constant radii woodie built by rollercoasterkid and the vote remained tied for a long time. Somehow I had pissed off all the dutch members and they all voted against me which was eventually enough to swing the vote. I was devastated and pissed off because half the members were foaming at the mouth, and the other half were ripping on the coaster. Whether it was jealously or true dislike I'll never know, but I do know that Nitro went on to win "best model of all time" at that year's SSCoasters awards and Sawdust was nowhere to be seen in that vote. The constant radii wooden coaster was a fad that wore itself out, and I believe the award I won at the awards that year (in addition to best old member and best advice) totally overcame the TM loss. I know that Nitro inspired a lot of people and that is a very humbling thing to know. I helped out SFF with the SSC awards and made sigs for everyone and started to gain a bit of a reputation.

(continued in the future, my hands hurt lol)

-Ben

[Antinos]

Basically, SSC was still bgtguide.sscoasters.net and was part of a webring of K'Nex sites

Ah, the webring. I remember getting into K'nex when I saw Andrew's K'nex Coaster Showcase(Coasterguy27's website). That forum flourished for a good half year before dying out when Andrew's computer crashed.

I was amazed at the size and number of coasters that some of the more prolific builders had made, specifically Westside7th and coasterguy27. I was also in awe at Oasis, which I still maintain is this site's quintessential coaster and should NEVER be forgotten. Coastergeekrct was still building

Other notable members of the time were sixflagsfreak56 (the first admin that was not originally an admin when the site was started), Shamu, Tyrant, Da Squriel (notable for mostly negative reasons), as well as the aforementioned coasterguy27, Westside7th, and coasterfreak11. I will tell you all right now that coasterfreak11 was and continues to be my biggest inspiration. Oasis was way smoother than anything else and was built during the very very early years of custom K'Nex coasters, and although some of you may disagree I think it's still one of the best coasters ever built here.

A the same time, SSC was really picking up. Matt Hendrix (coasterfreak11) was hard at work building other rides, notably duelers and a wild mouse coaster, as well as adding flat rides and another launched coaster to the K'Nex amusement park in his room. Tyrant was experimenting with CAD and just being ridiculously awesome in general. GregM had made a name for himself around when I joined with coasters like Race Thru the Clouds and continued his tenure and was well respected. Another member called Gravitiatic was building some really impressive rides for the time, and it's a shame his pictures were lost.

Coasterguy27, Coasterfreak11, Westside7th, Sixflagsfreak56, Coastergeekrtc, and Jumpboyb were my role models. I was in awe with their coasters due to their size and creativity. They're nothing like what's built today, and it's kind of a shame. Coasterguy27 got me into K'nex coasters with his website and even his rides continued to inspire me. Coasterfreak11 is probably my favorite builder of all time and I'm absolutely jealous of his bedroom. Oasis is no doubt the greatest model ever built and his amusement park was stunning. I also remember when Matt built Conflict, which is where I got the dueling loop idea for Solar and Lunar. I loved following Westside7th since I lived 10 minutes from him and he always built something awesome. His impulse coaster was one of the most creative rides at the time and I couldn't get over K2. Sixflagsfreak56 made a few awesome launched coasters and was a positive member on the forums. Coastergeekrtc and Jumpboyb made some of the most ridiculous models I've ever seen. I can remember CGRTC's Mirage and Jumpboyb's Typhoon like yesterday. I also remember my jaw dropping when I saw Greg M's Race thru the Clouds. The ride was humungous(the size of Infinity by Chaos), but it was so well built. Gravitiatic was also one of my favorite builders who had some pretty cool models in his time here.

The very first gallery is actually about 3-4 iterations before the current gallery we have and unfortunately all the pictures from there are gone. There were some incredibly creative models and many were featured as Model of the Months (similar to TM now, but on a monthly basis as the name suggests).

It's a shame that all the photos are gone because a lot of the newer members could draw a ton of inspiration from those rides. I'll have to do some digging to see if I can find a buried link to it.

Rollerdude (now Antinos) was incredibly prolific and built a crapload of models, which were starting to get good at this point (keep in mind we were all young at the time and our skills hadn't progressed very far, so everything was varying shades of "cool!"). Jogumpie had joined and was building very large coasters

It took me two years to finally start building great models. My breakthrough coaster, in my opinion was The Comet. After that, I had a string of quality coasters that you all know I've built. Also, gump got really good, really fast. He also built a ton of rides in a short amount of time.

Around this time, three main things happened. First of all, we started using slipping. Yes, it took this long to figure out about slipping (heartlining), but it became HUGE and the effort was definitely spearheaded by Marc (Antinos).

I remember I built the first heartline roll on Project: Fly, and after that, everybody used it. People then modified the heartline roll into transitions for turns, and rides got a hell of a lot smoother.

Next, we were able to modify boosters to be used with SS cars (SixFlagsFreak and myself were instrumental in this). And finally, coastergeekrct used tube supports for the first time. Yep, we had tube supports as early as 2004. It didn't catch on and the idea was fairly unused except for the occasional single support (I remember Marc using this on a launched coaster). coasterfreak11 and I were the first to use modified boosters to any extent.

Tube supports were a great way to add some quick batter bracing back in the day. Box supports were still the standard due to their strength. Tubes came in handy when pieces were running low and more support was needed.


Thanks for putting this together, Ben. It's bringing back some great memories. Expect plenty of comments from me.

[G Force]

I remember stumbling on pictures of Gumps Horse of Troy in the old gallery, I was blown away by all the amazing models on the site. It inspired me to pull out my old knex coaster and build my first custom model. Good Times...

Thanks for doing this CC10 a lot of the newer members need to see this as they don't know anything about the history of SSC.

[Jogumpie]

Thanks CC10. I cannot wait for the next chapter. The thread has been stickied, but I hope to make it even more permanent, as an official history of SSC.

[fastman xc]

Ben, this is excellent. I now can reminisce to the time leading up to joining and after joining. I had knowledge of a lot of this, but having it all here from someone who knows is great. I believe you made it right up to the point where I started building somewhat decent coasters. ha.

[fantom]

I remember right around when I joined the thing to do was putting one of these on your coaster:



I also remember some of us being up in arms about the lack of flexis? I'm not too sure. Looking back now, it was incredibly futuristic.

Other cool innovations that I distinctly remember were Jesper's and the drill launch. Everything I've posted seems outdated by now, but for sure helped us get where we are today. Or maybe I'm just delusional and these aren't even worthy of footnotes.

[coastercrazy10]

Nitro was finished in 2006 and around this time, as I mentioned, there was a split in the community. However, another split emerged and this was a realistic vs unrealistic styling split. There were no flame wars associated with this but looking back it's something worth noting. While all rides were becoming smoother and better shaped, there was certainly a large portion of builders who tried to be as realistic as possible, and another portion who cared only about interesting layouts and creativity. Personally, I went with the realistic route but I still kept on using box supports. I recreated Storm Runner and failed to finish RedLine (but later rebuilt it as RedLine2.0) while maintaining a realistic approach to my coasters from here on out. This is where the widespread use of tube supports got its start, right at the beginning of 2007.

Jogumpie began work on Project 2007 which would eventually become known as Speed o' Fear. Though not much was known about the potential strength of tube supports, gump was able to determine at least the basics of modern tube supporting over the course of finishing his coaster. It made an undeniable impact on our community and (for better or worse) is responsible for the box vs. tubes dichotomy present in modern coasters. SoF also started the buckel trend which is obviously still in use to this day, as most non-inverting coasters incorporate one into their layout somehow nowadays.

The tube support phenomenon created a substantial amount of hype and interest but had its fair share of skeptics, myself included. It wasn't until recently that I was convinced of their effectiveness, having come back to a ton of rock-solid, well supported and beautiful tube supported coasters. I don't think the tube supports officially caught on until MikeCoasterManiac built his recreation of Apollo's chariot, but that's pretty far in the future. What was happening in the community was a strong push for realism. The aforementioned split between realistic and creative was quickly leaning towards realism with the creative, unrealistic and innovative layouts and styles being skunked out. This is where I think we lost a little bit of who we were for a little bit.

In my opinion, the community lost sight of what we set out to do in the first place - have fun building roller coasters. Sure, it's arguable that building realistic coasters is fun (and it is), but I feel that over the next few years we were more concerned about realism than having fun. This is the reason for my spotty attendance here on the site. Sometimes I just can't deal with people building without wanting to have fun doing it, instead preferring to impress or to show off or some other reason with fun playing second fiddle. I found fun and challenge in building large scale models, which eventually turned into Redline2.0 and Diamondback, but a lot of coasters started becoming very cookie cutter. I just saw a lot of people that were more concerned with everyone else's opinions of their coasters instead of having fun, and even though RedLine2.0 wasn't perfect I still had a lot of fun building it. Again, fun is KEY (hence my "what does k'nex mean to you thread").

By this time I had been promoted to moderator and was working towards one last coaster: phobos. I wanted to do a throwback to HAP, which I held in such high regard, and build a permanent theme park in my room. Unfortunately I didn't have a room well designed for something like this and I had very little space to build a coaster in. I crammed as a coaster into a really tiny footprint and I intended it to be my last coaster. My interest had been waning in building for some time because of the aforementioned split and quashing of creativity I had seen and I wanted to build one last coaster. I finished phobos and pretty much disappeared for a while, but upon my return five months later I found a member whose creativity really impressed me: cardsandcoasters.

Brian, first and foremost, is an awesome guy. I talked with him on AIM all the time and we shared some common interests (including a fascination with the number 37). I have no problem stating that Brian is the reason why I built RedLine2.0, and the reason why I am still active. One day I came back to look at some coasters completely randomly and I saw Blindsided. It reminded me so much of Jumpboyb's Cerberus from AGES ago in that it wasn't perfectly smooth or even reaslitic, but an expression of creativity. It was Blindsided that really made me see that there was still that spark from a long time ago. After seeing it I looked further into the construction forum and saw Sirocco. I can't tell you how long it had been since I had seen a coaster that could have been Arrow. Gump built his Python recreation which was met with lukewarm reception over a year prior, but this is the first time anything Arrow got any attention in my entire memory of the site. It was simple and effective. It basically got me to finish up Phobos with theming. Then he finished Backdraft (which I am still flattered to be an influence for) which was, in my opinion, the best coaster this site had seen for a good portion of time. I don't remember a whole lot between the completion of SoF and the start of Redline2.0 except for Gump and Holland's attempt at a 13 foot recreation of Goliath at Walibi World and Marc's mega coasters. I know that Maverix (JIM JAM) joined around this time and started building but was just getting his feet under him. Chubs (other Kevin for sake of clarity lol) was building and making great coasters and Kevin had Kaibutsu under way. I think around here was where I caught a glimpse of the old SSC that I loved so much which inspired me to become more active and build again. I also remember Snake-Eyes being finished around this time which is one of my favorite coasters to this day.

(next section covers 2009 including companies and the tube support boom, after that I have a huge gap where I don't know about anything so someone will have to write the the history for 2010 and early 2011. I'd like something as complete as possible)

-Ben

EDIT: BTW gump this isn't stickied like you said it was...

EDIT: I did now - Maxlaam

[lazor 22]

When I joined all anyone cared about was realism and tension was real tight. Plus I was kinda a dumbass at times.. things got real bad when coastergeek came back in like 2008 and basically the whole year I was in a flame war every day or so. But then I stopped building and things kinda calmed down.. Took a break for alot of 2010 now I just kinda hang around in the background.

[Jplaz]

When I joined all anyone cared about was realism and tension was real tight. Plus I was kinda a dumbass at times.. things got real bad when coastergeek came back in like 2008 and basically the whole year I was in a flame war every day or so. But then I stopped building and things kinda calmed down.. Took a break for alot of 2010 now I just kinda hang around in the background.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

[Antinos]

Chubs (other Kevin for sake of clarity lol) was building and making great coasters and Kevin had Kaibutsu under way. I think around here was where I caught a glimpse of the old SSC that I loved so much which inspired me to become more active and build again. I also remember Snake-Eyes being finished around this time which is one of my favorite coasters to this day.

This paragraph made me remember just how creative and innovative Kevin's coasters were, especially Kaibutsu. Kevin didn't care that the loop was inverted and had never been done before in real life. He did it anyway. I also remember Devastator, which I found to have a general mega looper layout, but built in such a way that it was kind of old school. Lastly, you mentioning Chubs just reminded me of Aerolite. It has a very old school feel because of it's string of elements, yet it's built with modern techniques. That's basically what I'm aiming for with Retro - a coaster that just does whatever. No real manufacturer's style, just a ride with a flowing layout.

Also, knowing that Snake-eyes is still one of your favorites is very humbling to me. Out of all my coasters, that's probably my favorite. I knew it was going to be a challenge to build, and I pulled it off. It was also one of my favorites to watch. I could have sat there and watched it cycle for a long time.

[coastercrazy10]

I loved snake-eyes from the first construction pictures, I dunno what it is but there's something special about that ride. It's easily in my top 5 favorite rides built here, along with Backdraft, Oasis, Diamondback (I know it's my own, but I love that thing), and probably Apollo's Chariot if I was pressed for a fifth.

Part 4 coming soon.

-Ben

[Mister Piglette]

I know this is stickied so I believe it's okay to post something? Well I just wanted to start off with saying that this thread is very important as it does depict the history of SSC. This is something we all as members should see (especially the young ones like me) because it is essential to understand why we are all here: to build rollercoasters and most importantly, to have fun. The way I found this site was sort of a long story...

I was on YouTube at maybe age 9 or 10 when I looked up Rube Goldberg Machines as I loved them and I was so interested in how someone could use house hold objects to create a specific, but basic task (ex: pour milk in a glass). This led me to watch several of these at one point and you know, YouTube can side track you with their related videos. Luckily I found one of those and it happened to be Metropolis the Ball Machine. I'm pretty sure we all know what this is... a freaking massive ball machine. I was so interested in how someone could make such a large model of something! (Keep in mind I'm probably 9 or 10) The keyword in this for me was: K'Nex. That's what the related links were always of. I had all these videos on knex right in front of my eyes, and then they became rollercoasters. For days, maybe even weeks, that's all that I was searching up whenever I had the time on the computer. Even if I had seen the coaster before, I would still watch it dozens of times. Minebuster, Templar, Infinity, Woodchipper Racers, Rumbler... all the good classic roller coasters that we newer members probably have all seen and love. It was Templar that I loved that got me into knex, with it being an invert, with a loop, wing over, corkscrew, and an 8 foot Alpengeist drop! Now to obtain my knex?

So I'm at the store (I know this sounds very off topic) but I was with my mom, my mom's friend, and her son. We both go off into the toy section to look at toys, to see what was new, as that was the only reason why I wanted to go to the store (that was the fun part ) Bakugan... yes Bakugan... when they were popular, I was going to buy forty dollars worth of Bakugan when I noticed a roller coaster. It was the Micro Knex Loopin' Lightning coaster. I was so fascinated at this and I dropped the Bakugan and bought it right away. (Oh what a great idea that was!) I went home and built it as fast as Icould and I was so proud to have it in my room!

As I realized the connection of the Micro and the SS types and that they were both Knex, I really wanted to get an SS type of coaster because I saw all the realisticness of it.

I kept on watching YouTube videos and I eventually found a video that gave SSC credit for one of their coasters... and bam I became a member right when I saw the website listed. I didn't really own any knex or build any custom coasters yet, but I was so fascinated again at how this actually was a hobby for people to help critique other people's building techniques on knex rollercoasters.

I was kind of like a shadow on SSC, watching everyone else make coasters while I sat around not doing much but Chat with other members, and like Ben said a LONG time ago, I can see how sometimes the fun is eliminated when we build coasters and this is what I wanted to point out in what I've said. As someone who always wanted to impress, it always got in the way with having fun in my models. It isn't just me, but I can sometimes see it in members now as I have seen a few years gone by and it seems like we are all caught up in the shaping of the coaters, the supporting of the track, the overall realisticness of the coaster, and sometimes color-cordinating of the coaster, and comparing our builds to better ones. All that matters is if we have fun or not when we build. If you think you are not quite the builder and you're reading this, I want you and everyone, to understand that it isn't about those things like not being as good as everyone else builds,but I want everyone to enjoy these moments of building the things we are all capable of; and especially to have fun because that is all that matters. If we never have fun with our builds, then it's like why are we building at all?

-Logan

[SwimZONE]

I just came across this and was blown away, and I want to throw in my brief history here.

When I was a toddler, I used to take strings and hang them up everywhere driving my parents crazy. Apparently I even managed to hang some up above my blinds in my own room. Anyways, my parents could tell I had a creative knack and wanted to see where that would go, so I began getting knex sets for christmas and my birthday. My first set was not actually mine, but it was my brothers. It was K'nex's old T-rex model, which included a motor for it to walk with a swinging tail. I thought this was pretty cool so I was soon found playing with it more than my brother (who LOVED dinosaurs as a child). My parents caught on and started getting me all these K'nex sets for christmas and my birthday and what not. It started with Big Ball Factory when I was 7, then Trampoline Tower at 9, Lego Mindstorms 2.0 at 10, and Big air ball factory when I was 11. I bought the SS with my brother when I was 7 for I think it was $70 at the time. We had saved up for months and we built it together. Most of these sets sat collecting dust until the summer between 6th and 7th grade.

So I went to Valley Fair! my local amusement part. It was another yearly trip we made there, so the day was nothing special except for the spark it created. After spending the day there I decided I wanted to build my own roller coaster. Now I think I have some 4 models that I have never posted on here, and my first coaster was one of them. Basically it started from 6 feet, went up and around, and lost a lot of speed and could barely make it over the bunny hills at the end. My second coaster was called Buddy, and you can see it on my youtube channel. This was made after seeing some crazy good wooden roller coasters by coasterkid(?), or knexpert06 on youtube. Once i found out about the site in November of '07(?), I joined right away and enjoyed my time building Snow Banker as my first coaster on the site. It was also right around this time that SteelSpectrum made Stealth and gained a lot of recognition on the site.

My memory is pretty fuzzy after that, but I do remember building a lot of rollercoasters through middle school, and honestly you guys were the guys I really cared a lot about. I'd always come on looking forward to seeing another model from CardsAndCoasters, Maverix, DDR, Gump, Coaster55(I'll get back to you why he's freaking awesome in a bit), Killer Bunny, SteelSpectrum, and so many more. I know I stayed under the radar most of the time, but I occasionally had my "day" so to speak. Mt. Doom was probably the one that I got quite a bit of recognition for albeit I never finished the theming I had planned for it.

Back to Coaster55 though. He was definitely a builder I looked up to; his models were always crazy good, very clean, and kept their speed very well. Manta was what really did it for me, sadly I think the video no longer exists, but Piraten and Scylla and Charybdis were both exceptional models.

So that's the history of how I joined.

[SCM]

I feel like throwing in the summary of my history of knex, SSC, and YouTube.

When I was about four years old, I was introduced to knex. I didn't like them at first, and I actually hated the times when I was told to build with them. Eventually, however, I grew to like them. Time passed, and I had a few sets at the age of seven. When I wasn't building the models in instruction books, I would build small flat rides. One day, I decided I was bored with doing flat rides and models, and I wanted to do something different. That's what caused me to get my first coaster set: Ferris Coaster Wheel. I didn't complete the entire set because I didn't know how, but I made my first custom track. It wasn't a complete circuit, but it still led me to doing more. I then bought Vertical Vengance, and that too, I couldn't complete because it was too complicated for me. I bought a lot more micro sets, eventually making all the models from the instructions. A year or so later, when I was about nine, I saw CoasterCrazy10's Nitro. I recognized the X-ties on it, and then I finally knew what they were for. Before, I didn't know what X-ties were. I got about 10 yellow ones in a 450 piece value tub set, I thought they were supposed to be for a picnic table or something. Once I knew what they were really used for, I was inspired by Nitro to make something. I don't remember what I tried to make, but I don't think I got very far with only 10 X-ties. That's when I did some research and found out about SS style coasters. That's when I bought my first SS coaster. I didn't complete the coaster the first time (wow, I notice a pattern here), but it got me introduced to how stuff with SS style coasters work. I was building more and more coasters, most of which were uncompleted. I built both SS and VV ones. I found this site when I saw how a lot of coasters on YouTube talked about SSCoasters. I looked at the site, and I only went on the gallery to look at the pictures there, or I looked at the tutorials when they were still able to be viewed by guests. After a few years of doing this, I wanted to get a YouTube account. My parents didn't want me to get one, but after they talked about it some, they let me get one. I posted videos of my coasters on there. I stayed on YouTube only for a few years, and I looked back at SSC to look at pictures on this site for inspiration. Eventually, I wanted to join this site. I thought it would be a good idea to do, and I was right. My parents let me get an account on here without a problem, which is strange, since they are usually very cautious with sites I join. I joined SSC a few years ago, where I have been posting construction threads and building to this day.

As for the coasters I remember the old coasters I remember that stood out to me and inspired me, the list includes: Noxious, Palisade, (rollercoasterfanatic919), Avalanche, Apollos Chariot, Furious, Annihilation, (MikecoasterManiac), Templar, Minebuster, (Cp-epY) *I forgot how his name was spelled*, Diamondback, Nitro, Redline 2.0 (CoasterCrazy10), Chicorro, Blindsided, (CardsAndCoasters), Deluge, (TripleHelixFilms) Tesla, SheiKra, Manta, and Piraten (Coaster55). I think that's most of them. There may have been some others that I'm not thinking about right now. Also, coasters from The_Burrito_Master and roller coaster kid were ones that really stood out to me, too.

[-=Zach=-]

Wow, this might just be one of my all time favorite threads.



My history of enjoying roller coasters actually started when I was around 2 months old.
My first ever trip to Kings island was in October of 2000. At this time, I couldn't ride anything, (obviously,) but I absolutely loved watching roller coasters. My favorite ride to watch was Vortex. I would literally sit in front of the batwing and watch Vortex for hours with my dad while my mom and brother rode rides. I was addicted to Vortex. Watching it apparently made me smile and laugh.

My first ever roller coaster was Great Pumpkin Coaster at KI: Great Pumpkin Coaster - Kings Island (Kings Mills, Ohio, USA)
I rode this when I was 3 1/2 years old. Every time I went on it, I was terrified, but I loved the feeling of it.
As soon as I became 48 inches, it was time. Time to go on the ride I watched for years hoping to one day ride. This ride was Vortex. My first ride on Vortex was when I first turned 7. I adored everything about the ride. It was one of those rides that you keep riding over and over again. I fit in the train quite well then, so the uncomfortable ride for adults wasn't that bad for me. At that time I also rode Adventure Express, Racer, The Beast, and Italian Job, (Back Lot Stunt Coaster.)
When I turned 9, I conquered Drop Tower. It was not as scary as I thought it would be. Later on I rode Diamondback, FoF, and Firehawk also.

My first experience with K'nex was when I was 5. One of our friends had a few hundred pieces he gave me. My first ever roller coaster was Dragon's Drop. I got that at around 7 or 8. I also built the Original Roller Coaster with a friend.
I really stacked up on VV, I probably had around 6,000 pieces. I later got into ball machine building when I found ShadowMan on YouTube.

My first experience with SS was when I was 7. I watched Roller Coaster Kid's Bull's Eye, and the "K'nex Roller Coasters, Best of the Best." I instantly got addicted.
At around the age of 10, I sold all of my VV and most of my standard pieces for money. It wasn't until I turned twelve that I started getting back into K'nex, after watching a bunch of Maarten12 and Jumpge's builds. I noticed at the end of each video, they gave thanks to this thing called "SSCoasters.net"
I had no Idea what this was, so I decided to check it out. On May 6th, 2013, I created my account.

So yeah, ever since I was born, I was a coaster geek. I didn't actually start studying them until around the age of 6, though.

Edited by -=Zach=-, 21 April 2014 - 02:50 PM.

[Old_Hag]

My interest in roller coasters started in second grade. My friend invited me over his house and he started talking about this game he had, and we eventually wound up playing it. It was RCT2, and I'm fairly sure that was the first or second time I saw a roller coaster. Lets just say that they totally hypnotized me. I don't know what it was about them, but I could watch them forever. Fast forward a year, that was the first time I went to Cedar Point. Everything looked so huge and I was terrified of everything. I was somehow persuaded to go on Blue Streak, and I found it horrifying. Every year after that I went to Cedar Point planning to go on the big rides, but I could never muster up the courage to get on them. I would just sit and watch the rides while my brother rode them. It was only in 7th grade that my fear was broken. My friend force me on Dragster in the front row and ever since then roller coasters have been my favorite thing on the planet.

My knex story follows a similar timeline. At some point when I was really young my dad bought a Screamin Serpent. I thought it was awesome, but we moved so we took it down. I forgot about it after that. After playing RCT2 at my friends house I came home and immediately remembered the Knex set. I wrote it down on a piece of paper so I would remember it the next morning, and we built it the next day. The same friend that showed me RCT2 came over, and he was impressed with it. He asked for a set for his birthday and got the Rippin Rocket. He built it at his house, I came over, and was awed by it too. I got the Rippin Rocket for Christmas. Me and him built our first custom coaster together at his house; it was a really shitty Top Thrill Dragster recreation (whose first coaster isn't a TTD recreation?). I was definitely the one who took the custom coaster idea and ran with it--he only built 2 or 3 more custom coasters. At some point in 6th grade I found SSC (I don't remember exactly how, but I can practically guarantee it was through a Youtube video) and I started building.

My first coaster I was proud of was Vice. That was when I started to figure things out. I probably got a bit overconfident because I tried to do an Intimidator 305 recreation immediately after that. Basically, the super picky community at the time made me get everything right. I remember pki told me to just start over--and even though I didn't want to, it was probably the most influential critique of something I ever had, because after that I was able to finish the recreation and the techniques I used to build it are the ones I still use to this day.

I also want to thank everyone who is or was a part of this community, because this site basically set me on the path I'm on now. Without it I would have absolutely no idea what career path to take, but now I have it narrowed down to either mechanical or civil engineering. I hope this community can continue to inspire kids to pursue careers in science, engineering, and technology.

[Old_Hag]

My interest in roller coasters started in second grade. My friend invited me over his house and he started talking about this game he had, and we eventually wound up playing it. It was RCT2, and I'm fairly sure that was the first or second time I saw a roller coaster. Lets just say that they totally hypnotized me. I don't know what it was about them, but I could watch them forever. Fast forward a year, that was the first time I went to Cedar Point. Everything looked so huge and I was terrified of everything. I was somehow persuaded to go on Blue Streak, and I found it horrifying. Every year after that I went to Cedar Point planning to go on the big rides, but I could never muster up the courage to get on them. I would just sit and watch the rides while my brother rode them. It was only in 7th grade that my fear was broken. My friend force me on Dragster in the front row and ever since then roller coasters have been my favorite thing on the planet.

My knex story follows a similar timeline. At some point when I was really young my dad bought a Screamin Serpent. I thought it was awesome, but we moved so we took it down. I forgot about it after that. After playing RCT2 at my friends house I came home and immediately remembered the Knex set. I wrote it down on a piece of paper so I would remember it the next morning, and we built it the next day. The same friend that showed me RCT2 came over, and he was impressed with it. He asked for a set for his birthday and got the Rippin Rocket. He built it at his house, I came over, and was awed by it too. I got the Rippin Rocket for Christmas. Me and him built our first custom coaster together at his house; it was a really shitty Top Thrill Dragster recreation (whose first coaster isn't a TTD recreation?). I was definitely the one who took the custom coaster idea and ran with it--he only built 2 or 3 more custom coasters. At some point in 6th grade I found SSC (I don't remember exactly how, but I can practically guarantee it was through a Youtube video) and I started building.

My first coaster I was proud of was Vice. That was when I started to figure things out. I probably got a bit overconfident because I tried to do an Intimidator 305 recreation immediately after that. Basically, the super picky community at the time made me get everything right. I remember pki told me to just start over--and even though I didn't want to, it was probably the most influential critique of something I ever had, because after that I was able to finish the recreation and the techniques I used to build it are the ones I still use to this day.

I also want to thank everyone who is or was a part of this community, because this site basically set me on the path I'm on now. Without it I would have absolutely no idea what career path to take, but now I have it narrowed down to either mechanical or civil engineering. I hope this community can continue to inspire kids to pursue careers in science, engineering, and technology.