Santas Village Typhoon Resurfaces

[FParker185]

a pic from the LA County Fair in CA. Was bought at the Santas Village auction by Ray Cammack Shows, supposedly they set it up once or twice then decided it was in their best interests not to use it anymore, but now it's set up and running.

[Ilovthevu']

It should have went to the junkyard.

[Coastermonkey61]

What an unpleasant ride.

[CoasterDude12-2]

I never did ride it, but it just LOOKS crappy. In that sense I guess it was perfect for Santa's Village, which was the same way.

[Ilovthevu']

I personally think that, that ride killed Santa's Village along with the accident with those horses in which this new Santa's Village brought back. Galaxi was a fun roller coaster compared to Typhoon!I don't agree with the negativity for the park because Kiddieland also had some things letgo too. The Polyp lighting was a mess. At times, you would see the Scrambler with a lot of lights out. They took down the Galleon Pirate guy, and never put him back up. Those lights weren't too good. The Little Dipper had a bunch of unpainted sections, etc.

The parking lot for Santa's Village was bad though, and the main rides were in the back of the park (to the left). You have the Yo-Yo which is with a Chicago area carnival now. You had a Tilt-A-Whirl, a slower train (but it still didn't like bad - Amtrak later on through the trees, and some scenery), the Fire Truck ride, Galleon, Himilaya, Bumper Cars, Antique Cars that moved by themselves (faster than those Kidzapoolis cars), a Skyride, and a different type of Ferris Wheel. On the right side, you have less rides with the Snowballs, Balloons (faster version of SFGAm's Big Easy Balloons), Dragon Wagon coaster, Merry-Go-Round, and that side had more animals. For Kiddieland, you can see all the rides eyeing you in the face whereas Santa's Village, at the end of it's demise you see the dreaded Typhoon, and not much, but maybe the Fire Truck ride too. I think what hurt Santa's Village too is the location compared to Kiddieland, but also they were only open during the day - never at night. I'm going to blame the Typhoon though for the single biggest reason for why it's gone. You just looked at the one of the only rides you can see while walking to the entrance, and thought oh my goodness that ride is awful. And I don't think Santa's Village should have taken out the Spider ride nor the Wipeout because those were fun rides, but who knows why they did it?

Santa's Village also had shows whereas Kiddieland nope - magic and a gameshow.

[FParker185]

Typhoon put Santas Village out of business. Before Typhoon Santas Village was a very nice looking, very well kept park that was pretty popular. in 1997 when they put in Typhoon some parts showed up damaged, so it never opened in 1997, rather it opened in 1998 but in the mean time Top Fun swore the damage was not their fault and long running and expensive legal battles ensued, I don't know what the outcome was but I know in the meantime Santas Village paid to get it up and running, then after that the ride was a constant maintenance battle, it drained their budget. On top of that Typhoon and the crappy ride it gave was never popular with the public and for the longest time it had a 60" height requirement, and as we all know the target audience of Santas Village was well under 60". With all the cash they were hemorrhaging to open and then keep Typhoon working they didn't have money for new rides, themeing or even general upkeep and the park got into a huge downward slide. What was once a very nice small amusement park slowly turned into a poorly maintained dump.

I honestly believe if they had kept the Galaxi, or replaced with with another family coaster, the park would still be around today and probably doing quite well.

[tribar]

60 inches that is probably one of the highest height requriments i've ever seen. I know in order to be able to drive Winner's Circle you have to be 58" even though the passenger only has to be 42".

And i always thought SV and KL went out of buisness because of SFGAm but it doesn't look like that's the case. I also thought that SFHH drove Ozzi's in Palatine out of business. Maybe that is part of the reason but i think SV and KL were around way before SFGAm

[Ilovthevu']

^The only reason Kiddieland closed down is because one person owned the rides in the family, and one person owned the land. The land people wanted it sold so they can make a ton of money. Look what's there now - a Costco. They were in a feud, and the land people won. It has nothing to do with Kiddieland doing terrible.

[Director_Guy]

Man, I'm so close to it. Maybe I should go ride it.

No, screw that. Once is enough.

[Muck Finnesota]

I remember that commercial - "Ty-Ty-Typhoon is Fan-Fan-Fantastic".

Bad.

[Chitown]

Take a crappy ride and paint it orange. What do you get?
An orange crappy ride.

[Coaster Justin]

Typhoon put Santas Village out of business. Before Typhoon Santas Village was a very nice looking, very well kept park that was pretty popular. in 1997 when they put in Typhoon some parts showed up damaged, so it never opened in 1997, rather it opened in 1998 but in the mean time Top Fun swore the damage was not their fault and long running and expensive legal battles ensued, I don't know what the outcome was but I know in the meantime Santas Village paid to get it up and running, then after that the ride was a constant maintenance battle, it drained their budget. On top of that Typhoon and the crappy ride it gave was never popular with the public and for the longest time it had a 60" height requirement, and as we all know the target audience of Santas Village was well under 60". With all the cash they were hemorrhaging to open and then keep Typhoon working they didn't have money for new rides, themeing or even general upkeep and the park got into a huge downward slide. What was once a very nice small amusement park slowly turned into a poorly maintained dump.

I honestly believe if they had kept the Galaxi, or replaced with with another family coaster, the park would still be around today and probably doing quite well.

They are still around as AZoosment Park

[FParker185]

yeah, you may want to look into the history as to what happened to Santas Village. It's easily available. It's not even worth my time looking it up and posting it here.

[tp41190]

I actually didn't mind the coaster. Sure it sucked, but I did end up riding it like 5 times. The loop was the worst/best part.

[Ilovthevu']

Typhoon put Santas Village out of business. Before Typhoon Santas Village was a very nice looking, very well kept park that was pretty popular. in 1997 when they put in Typhoon some parts showed up damaged, so it never opened in 1997, rather it opened in 1998 but in the mean time Top Fun swore the damage was not their fault and long running and expensive legal battles ensued, I don't know what the outcome was but I know in the meantime Santas Village paid to get it up and running, then after that the ride was a constant maintenance battle, it drained their budget. On top of that Typhoon and the crappy ride it gave was never popular with the public and for the longest time it had a 60" height requirement, and as we all know the target audience of Santas Village was well under 60". With all the cash they were hemorrhaging to open and then keep Typhoon working they didn't have money for new rides, themeing or even general upkeep and the park got into a huge downward slide. What was once a very nice small amusement park slowly turned into a poorly maintained dump.

I honestly believe if they had kept the Galaxi, or replaced with with another family coaster, the park would still be around today and probably doing quite well.

They are still around as AZoosment Park

Short answer is that it's not the same owners as the former Santa's Village. The new park is also only I would actually say 1/3 of the old park.

[Necropolis]

Typhoon is in Cali??! Ugh. I thought it was gone. Plus I have never seen a coaster with a loop like that. The loop is leaning to one side like the loop is at a 45 degree angle almost.

[BP317]

I have never seen a coaster with a loop like that.

B&M standup coasters have them (Riddlers Revenge, Mantis, Chang)

[Necropolis]

^Good to see there are supports under the loop in that picture. In the picture of Typhoon it looks like there are none but from the angle the picture was taken I'm probably mistaken. Trickery!

[FParker185]

Typhoon shares the supports from the dive into the loop, they just jet out a little and are hard to see with it all being a single color.