Mamba Celebrates it's 25th Silver Anniversary!

Opening Day 1998 looking towards Mamba from the Nile queue line

25 years ago, on April 18, 1998, Mamba opened to guests for the very first time. I was there for its opening day. I still remember the cars streaming down Worlds of Fun Avenue backing up onto I-435. I recall the enormously long line for Mamba as it was only running one train thanks to a literal 11th-hour miracle to get it open. I didn’t ride it that day, and in fact, wouldn’t ride it for six more years.

Opening Day of Mamba, with no landscaping!

Five years ago I wrote a blog for Mamba’s 20th anniversary, discussing what made it a legend. Mamba  was a legend and still is, many can’t imagine a Worlds of Fun without it. I began thinking of what made it ceaselessly linked with all our conscious imaginations in much the same way that Orient Express and Zambezi Zinger were. Then I began to think about how the two stories, Mamba being built and Zinger being dismantled will be forever enjoined, they were happening at the same time. The two coasters would never coexist operationally at Worlds of Fun. This year for the first time the park will have rides named Mamba and Zambezi Zinger at the same time. 

Why do I bring this up? Because I believe that part of the impact of the legacy of Mamba is based on what was happening at the park at the time. The late 1990s and early 2000s were a period of turmoil for the park, everything was changing. Nearly a dozen attractions were removed during those years, and much of Mamba’s durability is because, during its early years, it was a constant in a world of change.  

My first time riding Mamba in 2004.

All those years ago though I was afraid of riding Mamba, or any coaster for that matter. People tried for years to get me on the old Zinger and then the new Mamba. My mom, who doesn’t even like amusement parks, rode the old Zinger! But not me. No way. By the time I was 21 and Mamba opened, I began getting told something new, “Mamba isn’t that scary, really it’s just an overgrown Zambezi Zinger”. Having never ridden Zinger that didn’t have any major impact on me at the time but I’ve never forgotten that line that Mamba is just an overgrown Zinger. it has kept repeating in the back of my head every time I see Mamba. I have come to realize that there is much more truth in those few worlds than I ever originally thought when I heard them.

Maybe it was originally meant to be a joke, but thinking of Mamba as an overgrown Zinger defines the ride and defines why many of us love it. Both Zinger and Mamba share similar qualities and hear me out. Yes, visually they are VERY different coasters. However, both are also specifically built for speed and less for crazy shenanigans, like loops and twists. Both are easily re-rideable, and visitors mention jumping off and back in line to ride Mamba again and again, They are both simply, fun. They both filled the same void. 

25 years ago Worlds of Fun lost its 24-year-old classic Anton Schwarzkopf creation and gained a brand new Steve Okomoto-designed Morgan Hypercoaster named Mamba. The park unintentionally created a perfect bookend to park history. Today, Mamba does what no other steel coaster in park history has done to date, it has reached its silver anniversary. But even more important, it long ago achieved iconic status at the park. In so doing it has also carried on the legacy of the two steel coasters that preceded it. It’s fun, and it’s dependable, and simply it’s a good friend that is still that red bedrock on the hill.