Scott And Carol Present - IAAPA 2013 Tuesday November 19th

It was late in the day, but Martin & Vleminckx saved the best for last, with a blockbuster announcement tooping of a busy day at IAAPA.

Martin Vleminckx Rides Announcement

 

While most ride manufacturers have been thrilled lately to announce 2 new rides, today MVR announced they will more than double the amount of MVR woodies in China. The trains will be split between PTCs and Timberliners, and they will be busy attending all the openings between May 2014 and February 2015

Interview with Chuck Bingham

The Gravity Group will provide the track designs and American Amusements will program the control systems for the new rides. The demand in China is so great that a Chinese office in Shenzhen, to be headed by Yao Yao, who has worked with MVR for 5 years supervising the installation and commissioning of the Far East rides.

 

 John Wood, and his team of artists at Sally Corporation have successfully revived the dark ride market sector through adding robots and other features to the traditional passive rides but installations really took off when they interactive target systems that kept score hit the parks. Suddenly everybody wanted to ride and do better than whoever they came to the part with, and they re-riding to improve their score. John was ensconced in the IAAPA Hall of Fame as a true pioneer in the amusement park business.

 

Also being inducted was John and Jim Huish, two brothers who built their first miniature golf course into the chain of Huish Family Fun Centers. Along the way they developed the first bumper boats, started building go-karts for themselves and others, when Jim was killed in a construction accident. John kept expanding their offerings and even created the Bullwinkle's Restaurant Franchise and water parks. Congratulations from all of us here and News Plus Notes to all of you for the recognition of your accomplishments.

The day kept getting better for Sally, they received the Best Booth Award, and from this picture you can see why. It sure helps to have outstanding thematic artists in house when you want to create a splash in a big pond like IAAPA. With 9 miles of aisles, over 1,100 suppliers, and 25,000 attendees, being recognized like this proves that you can run with the big dogs, and in Sally's case, they even know how to design a project for a smaller operation too. Way to go Sally team!

So that's enough for today. We have many more things to share, but for more you will have to wait for tomorrow.