Australian Amusement Fanatics

Hope everyone enjoyed the show, I had a great time working the Power Surge for Joyland's. I walked around on the last day, sorry these were the best photos I got, I didn't get too many. Hard during breaks while your working, you usually wanna sit down, relax and grab a bite or something to drink. I didn't get any night shots either, but ah well. I think we went pretty well on the Surge, busiest day would've probably been Easter Monday. But met a heap of people while working which was great. Was good to meet Princess and was good to see Paulie aswell.
Anyway here's the photos I got:

Carnival Area:













Breakdance:





CarnEvil:





Cliff Hanger:



Crazy Cars:





Extreme Speed:





FEAR: Never got to try this piece of rubbish, would've liked to but didn't. But shame with what happened though..





Hard Rock:



Haunted Hotel:



Mega Drop:





Laurie's Steam Merry-Go-Round:





No Limit:





Pirate's Revenge:





Power Surge:





Ranger:





Raupen Bahn:



Rock N Roll:





Sky View Wheel:





Sky Flyer:







Sky Walker:





Sling Shot:



Space Roller:





Starship 2000:



Taipan:



Wave Swinger:



XXXL:





Zipper:





There the best out of the bunch, sorry I didn't get anymore. But how quick 2 weeks went I couldn't believe. Was good to see all the showmen and all the workers. Hope everyone had a good show, see you all at Hawkesbury!

Cheers
Top Gunner14

Well done Adam - great photos of my first look of the grounds. thanks for sharing.

A couple of questions:

- what was the dodgem car used for in front of crazy cars? was it for people to try out?
- Starship 2000, were they LEDs its been fitted with?

SkyFlyer looks like it was in a good spot, was it doing full cycles most of the time? seems like a real hit with the public.

Thanks Zamperla yeh Starship has been fitted out with LED's, did need a bit of an over-haul and looked better with them. Umm actually not sure why there was the Car infront of the track, guessing just for people to have a photo, not 100%.

Yeh Sky Flyer was very popular and yeh definately a good spot for FJF, middle of the day into the night was mostly doing full cycles and running short cycles. Definately took some of Wave Swinger's customers

March's wave swinger is looking very confused. Looks like someone went down to sims metal and bought some scrape metal with some patterns on it. Its been shortlisted on the lemonlist 2010.

Coinking I have to agree. Confused is the right word!

Yeh must admit, I wasn't entirely impressed. Starting to look kind of more like the Show West unit. Liked the way it was before but I much prefered the classic paint-job it had before that, like the Wave Swinger should have

Topgunner it is unusual for you to be so judgemental about a new ride,

Top Gunner14 wrote:FEAR: Never got to try this piece of rubbish, would've liked to but didn't. But shame with what happened though..

, why don't you like it?

I would've liked to have tryed it, but never got the chance. But after hearing just about everyday that the ride was broken down and from what other people said about it, and also when the ride was running, just watching it run was quite disturbing, especially the noise and how much the loop shook when the train went through it.

But it is a shame for O'Neill's, and not their fault. To make a large investement and have that happen, would make you pretty annoyed/let-down

As we had with Halloween a couple of years ago

Top Gunner14 wrote:But after hearing just about everyday that the ride was broken down and from what other people said about it

I think you know where I am going with this comment, as per a previous discussion we have had in the past.

Great photos Top Gunner, im thinking maybe next year i might have get down there for the show. Its been a few years since i was there last. Would be good.

Yeh I do Princess, know exactly what we were discussing, well what you said anyway.

Thanks Hard Rock, yeh it is good to get too, but then again making a trip to Hawkesbury is always something to do too after going to the RES

I am impressed Topgunner.

From the photo TG, the car in front of crazy cars had what looked like a white step beside it and some cool artwork behind it, so I thought the same, a photo opportunity...

Did anyone get the opportunity to try Bell's new Crazy Raft in the Kids Carnival? I'm really annoyed at myself for not giving it a go, especially since I was right there watching it for some time. It sounds like a pretty fast and cool ride and was very popular. My idea was to return to the Kids Carnival later in the day as it was the first place I came to after getting off the bus into Olympic Park but stupid me forgot all about it until it was too late!

I couldn't see the pics obviously TG but I know they were good.

I watched some kids on the mini drop ride, it was the funniest thing I had seen, the little ones squealed everytime it went down, they were so cute, I watched for sometime enjoying watching their faces and their pleasure.

awesome photos mate, kinda glad i missed out this year, just feels like the easter show has lost its amazing class and appeal... i dunno, yes we all know how i feel about rainbow, but just overall it doesnt have that strong appeal that it used to

Excellent ride line up and photos there TopGunner,just looked at Marchs Wave Swinger,its looking like Marchs wants to have the Show West look haha i personally prefer the original look from last year how ever overall Show West's Wave Swinger sure looks more appealing haha.

HUSSRAINBOW wrote:ut just overall it doesnt have that strong appeal that it used to

The signs of ageing Huss

haha true i guess, don't get me wrong, i'll keep going to sydney for the next 20 years for the show... I dunno really anymore though, back in the wittingslow days it wasnt all just about the money, of course with the economy, petrol etc prices go up, but it just feels like it has lost that real family fun appeal, you can tell some workers don't want to be there etc.... oh well... lets just hope we see some classics back in the future. feels like Zipper and Ranger are the only classics at Sydney now

HUSSRAINBOW wrote:back in the wittingslow days it wasnt all just about the money, of course with the economy, petrol etc prices go up, but it just feels like it has lost that real family fun appeal, you can tell some workers don't want to be there etc.... oh well... lets just hope we see some classics back in the future. feels like Zipper and Ranger are the only classics at Sydney now

Brisbane is the same. Sign of the times I guess. I actually drove down and went to the Syd show this year. I was over it in a hour and a half. There was just no atmosphere, very sterile feel I wish I had travelled down years ago now at the old grounds, I bet it was better.

Funderstruck wrote:here was just no atmosphere, very sterile feel I wish I had travelled down years ago now at the old grounds, I bet it was better.

It was, it always felt exciting, no matter, maybe not at the end of a the night, when your feet were killing you and you could not talk from spruking all day, but it was fantastic, though maybe it is just exciting to look back on it now, when I was young and very very foolish

HUSSRAINBOW wrote:it wasnt all just about the money

, it has always been about money, but it is very different I dont think I can put my finger on whats changed, but the pressures a bigger, which unfortunately these days of insurance premiums, loan repayments, its all about the money, in whatever business you are in, the passion goes, you lose sight of the bigger picture, imo.

Does anyone have any photos from RES from when it was in its prime?

Agreed Princess, Huss etc. The show these days is definitely different to the old days. You still see traces of that old magic but the atmosphere is definitely worse tthan it was back before the move to Olympic Park.

I think I do have some old photos of the RES back in the 80's. If I can get access to a scanner, I'll put some up. I've also got some from World Expo 88 and the rides that operated there.

Halloween has been sold to a operator in Germany, according to a article in the lastest edition of Kirmes & Park Revue is was sent over after its last appearence at the Royal Easter Show. On all accounts is has been out of the country quite a while and working through Germany.

Thats for that Kiwi, always wondered what happened to it. Only ever saw it at Tamworth show the once.