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Reading the reviews for this roller coaster, I had the impression that different authors were reviewing different rides, and with the reprofilers saw blade never far from wood trackage at Six Flags, that may very well be the case. Im pretty certain Wild One has changed since my previous spin on it a few years ago, and Im quite certain the buzzbars B-Fun spoke so highly of are now history. That latter development is a crying shame, for if ever a ride cried out for bench seats and buzzbars to complement its PTCs, its this one. In any event, Im going with a 7 for Wild Ones 24 September 2006 incarnation, but its a high 7. After the claustrophic confines of its younger brother Roar, Wild One felt like a liberating tear through open country under big skies . . . big, raining skies last Sunday, which helped this thing motor along with gusto. Things never got quite out-of-control enough for me, however, until the final helix, which wrapped things up in grand fashion by plastering us all to the sides of the train with its remarkably shallow banking. It was a thing of beauty, all the more so in that it was found beneath the billowing ensigns of a corporate monolith whose devotion to wood has more than occasionally been called into question. Yet rather than turn this into an occasion to air oft-repeated grievances, I will simply say that this felt to me like a well-maintained wooden roller coaster running in fine form with nary a trim brake until just the right amount of speed was scrubbed from the ride to welcome us into the helixs embrace. Unfortunately, I did not experience the ample airtime that others seemed to have enjoyed; even my skinny be-hind was securely wedged in by the individual lap bars, seatbelts, and seat dividers. Making matters worse, once Schneider forced everyone to get a haircut, his next move was apparently to bust enough well-shorn heads to ensure that every patron gets a vigorous stapling aboard the companys roller coasters. However, even the heavy hand of fascism could not erase the benevolent influence of John Miller, whose guiding touch can still be felt along Wild Ones ever-shifting course.
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