Son of Beast: Too Rough to be Tamed (feat. XscreamThrills)

One of the most infamous roller coasters of all time, Son of Beast broke numerous records when it opened at Paramount's Kings Island in 2000. It also broke a decent number of its riders.
In Episode 9 of Amusement Anthology, hear the story of the coaster that was too ambitious for its time. In a rush to compete with Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom, Kings Island would work with RCCA to create the most relentless wooden coaster in amusement park history. Son of Beast turned its riders in all directions, including upside down. Sadly, poor construction decisions, cut corners, and an unfortunate accident would lead to its downfall.
[Chapters]
0:00 Intro
2:10 The Beast Escapes
6:00 A Paramount Investment
8:55 Son of Beast
10:22 Better or Worse?
12:29 The Accident
14:43 The Son's Fate
16:05 Outro
Derrick from XscreamThrills joins me for this episode! You can find his channel here: / @xscreamthrills
Researched, written, and edited by Jonathan Baker.
Narrated by Jonathan Baker & Derrick Abbey.
SOCIAL MEDIA:
Facebook: / rampagingrex
Instagram: / rampagingrex
AMUSEMENT ANTHOLOGY DOCUMENTARY PLAYLIST:
• Amusement Anthology Do...
FEATURING FOOTAGE BY:
Sean Flaharty: / seanflaharty
CoasterBob62: / coasterbob62
Arthur Goulet: / artgoulet
Kings Island: / kingsislandonline
NizzleToob: / nizzletoob
OWCmedia: / owcmedia
psyclonesteve: / psyclonesteve
Ryan Campbell: / @ryancampbell955
TheThrillride89: / thethrillride89
WCPO 9: / wcpo
WLWT: / wlwttv
HD Shots of The Beast, Bat, Vortex, Banshee, and the Kings Island entrance shot by myself.
#SonofBeast #KingsIsland #AmusementAnthology

[@RampagingRex]

Thanks again to XscreamThrills for joining me for this video! If you'd like to check out his channel, I have a link in the description. I hope you all enjoy this episode of Amusement Anthology! If you have any memories or stories of Son of Beast, feel free to share them here. Thanks for watching, everyone!

[@ldhproductions112]

RampagingRex Productions please do a documentary for Indiana Beach, it was just announced to close.

[@timk987]

@@ldhproductions112 No! it too early, the body is still warm...let's hold on to the hope that it can find new more responsible ownership!

[@XscreamThrills]

It was my pleasure working with you! Looking forward to future collaborations!

[@VinceHere98]

You should probably do an episode of Amusement anthology on Shoot The Rapids one day. That or maybe Z-Force/Flashback. Both of which are Intamin coasters that are now defunct.

[@Shockzone1495]

Such a shame that the son dies before the father. RIP Son of Beast

[@SeanFlaharty]

Wow! Great job. Thanks for the credits and shoutout! Son of Beast was the first major coaster that I was able to cover from the first ground breaking until it closed. Kings Island was incredibly generous in inviting me down to the park every couple of weeks to take pictures and upload them to my crappy Geocities webpage. The park didn't have a webcam or a dedicated page on their server for construction photos or videos at the time.

[@RampagingRex]

Thank you Sean, I'm glad you enjoyed it! I swear I can't make one of these videos without including at least a small portion of your footage. You were incredibly lucky to be able to film Son of Beast in such detail. Nowadays that footage really is irreplaceable. At least the coaster was fun to watch!

[@SeanFlaharty]

@@RampagingRex Thanks again. I had a great time documenting Son of. Beast. I can't say the ride was one of my favorites but I enjoyed the times that the coaster provided. To this day, some of the most frequent questions I get asked are about Son of Beast. I learned a ton about the industry during that time thanks to the park. At one point I even had construction workers e-mailing me pictures of the construction from the tops of the massive cranes that were installed. While the park enjoyed the pictures, they asked me to not post them as I don't believe it was too safe to walk to the end of a crane to get a picture. Ha ha.

[@tarttooth6022]

Having grown up 10 minutes away from Kings Island in the '90s and early '00s, this video is very nostalgic. Went at least once a summer.

[@HerecomestheCalavera]

That place is so expensive once a summer is all anyone could afford!

[@shane9245]

Classic80sStuff Unless you get a season pass, which then you get a better deal

[@BrandonFoltz]

Just an incredibly violent bone-crushing ride. Loved every second.

[@mitchellries256]

I spoke with a Kings Island employee in 2015 as to why Son of Beast wasn't turned into a hybrid coaster from Rocky Mountain Construction and apparently the reason why was because of too much bad publicity. In other words, they basically feared that with all the trouble it went through and the huge amount of modifications this coaster needed they felt like it would be too much work for possibly nothing. It does suck though because that coaster would've been the prefect RMC project. But there's still a lot of space behind Banshee where Son of Beast used to sit and not to mention the old station is still there as well. I don't think it will happen next but maybe all that space could be used for a new coaster. I doubt it will happen but maybe RMC could redesign the coaster and create a newer and more safer version of that ride and call it Son of Beast Reborn.

[@ArrowThrills]

Yeah I would like that.

[@Coolsomeone234]

Revenge of the son of the beast

[@ThrillsofColdplay]

Would have been the best RMC probably

[@Nick_J_]

Ooo! “Mother of Beast” could be a good name

[@kingblitzy9417]

1:54 The Sequel is never as good as the original

[@kotchapakmaneechote2062]

dat brakes da laws of fisics

[@src4409]

Rode this many times, with and without the loop. It was the roughest Rollercoaster ride I've ever experienced, and I avoided it a few times because I felt my neck and back weren't happy after riding.

[@rickb2432]

I lived about 60 miles from King’s Island for years and visited the park 3-4 times a year. I was never in the park when The Bat was operating. I loved The Beast and The SOB as well. I live in SoCal now and look back at those summer days at King’s Island fondly.

[@scottyjbd]

Loved this! I have fond memories of SoB, I rode it end of June 2000, 4 times in the back car. Pretty sure one of the crew said it hadn’t operated for the public in almost 2 weeks. Didn’t open until half way through the day! Quite the shocker. My family had decided to jump in line halfway through the day and 20 minutes in, it actually opened. The Roller Coaster Gods were truly with me that day ❤️

[@CoasterHour]

Fantastic Documentary, a shame the park couldn’t have waited a few years to build Son of Beast as I think gravity group would’ve been a company that could’ve been able to pull off such an ambitious project.

[@TheCoasterMeme]

Coaster Hour I think it might have been a 20th anniversary thing since the bears was celebrating 20 years

[@CoasterHour]

24/7 Rollercoasters Perhaps they should’ve waited for the 25th anniversary.

[@corykalb7749]

Paramount was in the midst of the coaster wars with Cedar Fair and Six Flags. They couldn't wait.

[@theunwelcome]

shame it was removed completely, would be interesting to load a bunch of modern measuring equipment on it, see what the actual g-forces and how much it rattled the riders compared to some of the other huge coasters

[@theaveragesimmer4780]

The world needs a RMC Son of Beast remake.

[@ChampionImpulse]

This is a great documentary! Question: do you intend on ever doing a documentary on the rise and fall of Paramount Parks?

[@JrsBoatRocker]

The amount of wood used for this ride was psycho! 😵The view of the lift hill’s support beams from the ground made for one hell of an impressive view. Even the rose bowl section looked hella crazy with all that crisscrossing lumber 😯

[@Brandon-qd2lb]

What if that lady didn’t report the injury in 2009? Would it still be operating? We need a Volcano coaster documentary

[@jamesjakejohn]

I likely think it would have for a few more seasons but it would have still eventually suffer the same fate. Cedar Fair had multiple ride manufactures come and look at the ride to see if re-track was possible but all of them said that the structure was too damaged for a re-track and that most of the ride would have to be rebuilt from the ground up. The cost would have likely been around $15 to 20 million dollars at the time it didn't make sense to spend nearly what it would cost to built a new coaster to fix an old one that had a history of being rough and unsafe. Ultimately after about three years of trying to see anyone will come in with a better estimate and at the same time warranty that the coaster would be safe and without major problems. They decided it would better to just get a new coaster for slightly more money. At the time RMC wouldn't even give Cedar Fair an estimate due to how bad the structure and at the time how new they were was which is likely the reason Cedar Fair didn't use them until over 5 years later. If RMC was as big back then as they are today I think that ride would still be around but back then the only full re-track they were doing was the Texas Giant and that took all the companies resources.

[@Brandon-qd2lb]

Jay Killnar yeah they wanted a more reliable coaster so they called up B&M instead lol

[@ArrowThrills]

@@Brandon-qd2lb yeah but B&M sucks now

[@Abid0]

Wow! This is the second video I've watched from you,(first being the GameCube accessories)and man, you deserve more subs.

[@the1ucidone]

I have never felt so lucky to have ridden Son of Beast twice. Honestly, at one point I thought I was gonna fly out lmao. What a rush and a special part of my life. It's strange to think that after watching this video I'm sad, sad that most people will never know of the pure insanity that ride held. Great piece of history RampaginRex. Thank you for helping me remember and to cherish this memory a little longer.

[@bobs_coasterexperience3025]

Agreed, One of the most insane rides at the time. Really intense. I was a fan.

[@Fenrirmaster30]

Yet another great documentary from this channel! This quality feels like something that could be on the History Channel or the Travel Channel!

[@RampagingRex]

Thank you, that means a lot!

[@joshuarexrode8533]

Really nice video! I am trying to think of some redeeming qualities that Son of Beast had, but I'm getting nothing haha. I am not one to complain about roughness, but this thing was brutal! But that's not the biggest problem I had with it. The biggest problem I had with it was that it was just plain boring. The layout done absolutely nothing. It felt like it was gonna valley so many times during the ride.

[@chrisjohn9323]

Video is absolutely genius. What a great job guys! Great history, great footage and great narration. Very well done.

[@ArrowThrills]

I hope SOB comes back one day.

[@VinceHere98]

In all honesty, they should rebuild the coaster somewhere and have it built correctly and much better so it wouldn’t have any issues that caused it to close down forever.

[@TehSymbiote]

I remember working there the year it came out. I definitely had headaches after riding

[@cubebird1]

Such a good video I’m crying

[@ThrillsofColdplay]

The original trains looked so much cooler then the replacements

[@XscreamThrills]

One of your best documentaries yet 👍

[@CommanderOmegaTau]

Those Hurricane cars were WAY rougher on Son of Beast than the original Premier ones. They were not designed to operate on the coaster. Having ridden both Looped and Un-looped, Looped Son of Beast was far superior in my opinion.

[@Splater765]

When you said during the live stream in January that your next documentary would be on a roller coaster, I knew it was son of beast. Great Video!

[@tired_teetee5816]

Dude! Finally! I was looking foward too this! Thanks man!

[@thlayliakuji83]

I remember this ride. I have family in Delhi, which isn't too far away from Mason- they always went in the summer. I was finally tall enough to ride the son of beast but it was closed, and my family was like "oh you'll get it next year haha" Maybe it's a good thing I didn't get to ride it, lol. Love the beast but even it hurts me a little

[@djswiney6619]

I rode this ride after 9th grade in the summer of 03 and after graduation in 2006. It was rough and the forces hurt my head. I rode it because it was a thrill to ride a looping wooden roller coaster. I never realized the poor planning that went into it. To think, I could have been seriously injured on this ride. If I had known just how poorly maintained it was, I would have never ridden it. And I LOVE to ride roller coasters.

[@MadameM.]

Excellent video! The best I've seen on SOB!

[@ninagorniak9054]

Your best video documentary yet!

[@ThrillsofColdplay]

I’ve never seen it in person but in pictures it looks so beautiful

[@enfynet]

FYI- The 2nd and 3rd tunnels before the second lift were combined. The last tunnel over the helix wasn’t there when the ride opened.

[@ponderin]

I got to ride with and without the loop. And as a kid I remebr that loop being everything...

[@kevin-727]

Well done and in depth. Great footage as well from the contributors. Never been to Kings Island....yet.

[@connorwaits6575]

I just miss looking at it. Was truly a work of art to the eye, at least. Lol

[@joshuajunker6514]

Just happened to be checking out your channel. Glad I did!!!!!

[@jessewisdom1356]

I liked this video so much I subscribed!!

[@landonsmith295]

I always wonder when the next wooden hyper will be built.

[@Joypyf]

This is GREAT!!!!👍🏼

[@darrylellis4809]

Man wish they realy waited for rmc to get to this

[@stevenray5702]

To bad RMC wasn't around back then to redo Son Of Beast could you imagine what that ride could have been.

[@ArrowThrills]

Maybe it could be Vortex's replacement.

[@joshdorazio7084]

Rest In Piece Son Of Beast

[@LowgaenSchmidt]

Imagine if RMC took off just a few years earlier, an Iron Horsed Son of Beast could've been epic.

[@HerecomestheCalavera]

Very interesting video. I went to Kings Island a couple of times while Son Of Beast was there but it was always closed so I never got to ride it.

[@ben11k]

Gave me the one of the worst headaches of my life.

[@MiguelBerryFan]

THE AVERAGE BEAR Why is your response so long lmfao

[@shane9245]

THE AVERAGE BEAR no way in hell im reading that

[@realthrills5448]

Sob has the best logo

[@timk987]

SOB was an imposter all along! Beastie was the real Son of Beast!

[@RampagingRex]

Or Scooby Doo! ...or was it Woodstock Express?

[@timk987]

@@RampagingRex All the same :)

[@timk987]

They built a short wooden tunnel at the bottom of the first drop to transform Scooby into Beastie and give him a little more likeness to Papa!

[@ArrowThrills]

Not anymore.

[@AshleyChalfant88]

I have always and will always call it The Beastie

[@xavierpayne7179]

I live in Cincinnati and went to Kings Island a lot as a kid. The Bat was not replaced by Vortex. The Bat is still standing there today after being renamed to "TopGun" and then back to "The Bat". Vortex has since been torn down. I believe that Diamondback now stands where Son of Beast used to.

[@RampagingRex]

You're referring to a different Bat. The original Bat was built on the site that was later occupied by Vortex (even reusing the same station). Kings Island bought a second Arrow suspended coaster in 1993, which opened as Top Gun. It was later renamed Flight Deck and then The Bat as a tribute to the original Bat from 1981.

[@xavierpayne7179]

@@RampagingRex weird.

[@VinceHere98]

This coaster would’ve been fun for me to ride, even if it was rough and too intense. For me, wooden coasters are the most terrifying type of coaster to ride on (I haven’t ridden an RMC Hybrid yet, but I can imagine they are more terrifying than your average basic wooden coaster). I would’ve shit a ton a bricks going through that vertical loop on Son of Beast. But even if so, I would’ve had a blast. It’s really a shame this coaster was pretty doomed from the start, due to how poorly it was constructed. I would’ve loved to ride it despite its flaws and negative publicity. I hope RMC can maybe one day build a hybrid coaster with a vertical loop similar to that of Son of Beast. Sure, the RMC hybrid coasters have other types of inversions such as a twist/zero g roll or a zero g stall but I have yet to see one with a vertical loop.

[@Orange_Laowai]

1. I love the new mic 2. Do a video on shoot the rapids.

[@zacharynascimento3921]

I feel like Kings Island should rebuild Son of Beast, but have GCI or Gravity Group build it.

[@theanygamer4044]

14:06 BRUH LOOK AT THAT SWAY

[@ThrillsofColdplay]

It’s sad we probably won’t see a new version of this anymore

[@ArthurTerry-we1uv]

Son of beast was way ahead of it's time I will never forget driving past the park it's massive wooden area I couldn't believe it's size some small parks are smaller than its acerage

[@pixelythegamer3260]

I heard from one website, said Astroworld in Houston texas wanted to build a rcca looping wooden coaster, but I guess after the flop that was son of beast, it was cancelled.

[@citisoccer]

I loved riding that coaster. One of the best ever at KI.

[@tigerrocks503chase8]

I kinda find it stupid that RCCA was fired just because temporary supports fell down.... Look at what happened with Zadra...it had some supports collapse but RMC did not get in trouble..... Son of Beast was a complete disaster....it really had potential, but thanks to poor decisions, corner cutting, design flaws, lack of care, and lawsuits, this is why this coaster has gone down in infamy. Overall, great episode and collab Rex and Xscream! 👍

[@ArrowThrills]

Right Paramount made a stupid decision

[@bobs_coasterexperience3025]

Good stuff. I was a fan of the coaster I know I am one of few.

[@RampagingRex]

One of the few, yet one of those lucky enough to have ridden!

[@jumpman23_sbgaming12]

Bobs_CoasterExperience rode twice I think myself. Once with the loop and once without. Still a experience though!!

[@TonyKimtheamusementparkfan]

Not going to lie the trains that Premier Rides built for this ride look pretty cool :) But it's kinda strange on a wood coaster lol. I mean B&M did that for Psyclone at Six Flags Magic Mountain, and those trains were very disliked xD. Even Gerstlauer built wood coaster trains for many CCI coasters. Idk it just seems that some of the steel coaster manufacturers should probably just stick to their own train designs for their steel coasters xD

[@ch6inre6ction11]

I'm mad somebody started cutting onions at the end of the video 😡

[@thtoneguy0321]

hey I have a question it says on the world record list.. "7.A tie for the most wooden roller coasters on Earth.. Paramount's Kings Island has 5 wood coasters" and I was counting in my head an including the beast the racer Woodstock Express and Son of beast that makes four.. which is what it's still at now after they took down Son of beast and put in Mystic timbers.. if I'm forgetting one let me know it's just I can't think of it I mean unless they're considering adventure Express which is an arrow mine coaster as a wooden coaster..

[@TheCoasterMeme]

Do you have the nanocoaster?

[@nothanksguy]

The son of beast was the only roller coaster I've ever ridden that was rough going up the lift hill... Even if it was smooth, I'm not sure that the layout ever could have been a good coaster. Those weird Felix's wouldn't have been to enjoyable even if they were smooth, giving a odd combination of positive cheese and laterals and not being like normal helixes because of their angled nature. It would have been nice to see more airtime elements, a massive double down for the second drop and going into the loop would have been an amazing moment.

[@ThrillsofColdplay]

Did this coaster have airtime or was it mostly about speed

[@Brandon-qd2lb]

Really like those old trains they looked really cool but we’re super heavy Im sure. Paramount kind of got karma from this coaster for going all out and six flags did nothing to Kentucky kingdom lmao! The layout was just so weak though, but the station was really high off the ground. Only intamin or Rmc would be crazy to build a wooden coaster over 200 ft tall ever again.

[@timk987]

Six Flags did open the Dueling woodie Twisted Sisters (Twisted Twins) in 1998 and a Maurer wild mouse (Road Runner Express) in 2000 making it 5 coaster additions in 7 years between the 2 owners, so I'd say there was legitimate concern.

[@timk987]

As for a wooden coaster ever going over 200 ft. I believe it's not out of the realm of possibility, but I think the most durable and cost effective system would be a wood track on steel structure hybrid. Actually that might have fit nicely at PKI with SOB's potential mother being Vortex...Explains where the vertical loop comes from too! LOL

[@rasmuswestergren6221]

For me, 14:07 puts aside all shiny recordings of this coaster as in 16:20

[@bundleoforanges]

So when you think about it, Son of Beast is the reason that Geauga Lake closed

[@ThrillsofColdplay]

That ending is so sad

[@drby0788]

Rode it with the loop and yeah it was really rough. Still liked it though. Could've been the best wooden coaster of all time if not so rough.

[@bbrendell]

This was a good ass video

[@JJJJ-he8bz]

Kings Island would have ended the coaster wars if this was converted by rmc

[@timk987]

While I like Derek and am a subscriber of his channel, I prefer you (Jonathan) handling the narration of documentary videos ("Amusement Anthology") on your own. Derek does a great job on his reviews and playing the roller coaster Grim Reaper with his "Destroyed" and "Get the Axe" videos, but I just think this video would've been better with you handling all the narration. I hope this criticism comes as a compliment to Derek as perhap my mind just won't allow me to fully enjoy his voice without ultimately hearing his opinion. Actually, maybe I would like Derek doing all the narration but just don't like the shared role aspect. Documentaries are probably best with singular narration in general...just my opinion. I am looking forward to future collaboration videos when the two of you cover Candymonium's media day!

[@XscreamThrills]

Don't mind me, just creeping over older comments... :)

[@VinceHere98]

Music used?

[@ArthurTerry-we1uv]

Remember this was completed in one off-season same time cedar point built millennium force the worlds first steel giga and first hyper woodie in the same state Ohio

[@chasefarrell2687]

Brutal

[@HockeyGUY66871]

They should have RMCd it

[@TonyKimtheamusementparkfan]

I can definitely say that I'm glad Cedar Fair owns this park now, because Paramount kinda ruined it, especially with Son of Beast.

[@sonic23233]

I only rode it once or twice

[@lallen3442]

So Son of Beast is to blame for Geauga Lake closing?

[@bmoremetal]

Fact: paramount ruins everything. Even their decisions at Kings Dominion sucked.

[@Protronica]

I’m starting to get worried with the views..

[@RampagingRex]

Why do you say that?

[@Protronica]

RampagingRex Productions your an awesome channel and you don’t get as much attention and views that you deserve.

[@chasefarrell2687]

That’s why Son of Beast is Defunct

[@chasefarrell2687]

Son of beast is themed sponsored by paramount productions

[@Demon-POT]

Gci should've built it

[@ArrowThrills]

Or CCI

[@ihadtodelete9084]

Is it just me, but does Xscreamthrills sound like YourMovieSucks?

[@ArthurTerry-we1uv]

I built it on rct2 they said it was too intense so I kept it running for entertainment mine never crashed it took me 2 hours I kept running out of cash tecteating kings island😊😊

[@Demon-POT]

Should've gotten a B&M🙄🙄🙄...

[@Nick_J_]

Sure, the ride was rough. Sure, they needed to give it tons of maintenance. And yes, it didn’t last very long. But at least the layout was terrible!

[@donaldduck9598]

son of beast was the best ride evvvvvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@chasefarrell2687]

Son of beast is too rough to be tamed

[@acceleratedcreative]

Jonathan (Rampaging Rex) : "This is one of my best documentaries..." Jason: "AHH Confidence! A fools substitute for intelligence." I'm the top banana in a world full of monkeys..

[@ArthurTerry-we1uv]

It was massive the wwe Andre the giant of wooden coasters sixflags fiesta's rattler is the big show wrestler beasys

[@yourroyalhighness7662]

The switching of narrators made the video unwatchable. One voice sounded like it had swallowed helium while the other read the script a smackeral too quickly. The music was also poorly chosen. You can do better. Your grade: A for effort and C for final product. Class dismissed. Have a good day and stay safe.