Oriental Octopus
1973 - 2014


Statistics:
Manufacturer: Eyerly Aircraft Company
Model Type: Monster
All Time Maximum Capacity: 950 an hour

Oriental Octopus or just Octopus as most have referred to it over the years was an original ride to the park, and the only ride to open with the Orient section of the park in 1973. It was originally located where Bamboozler is today and the queue line structure is almost identical even today. Octopus was manufactured by Eyerly Aircraft Company of Salem, Oregon and was one of the company's most popular rides installed at amusement parks and traveling fairs across the country. Riders would board one of the ride's 16 cars that sat approximately 2-3 riders per car, each car was attached to one of the ride's four arms, which was then attached to a central hub. When the ride began the central hub would spin and also raise and lower each arm through the arm, while each arm would also individually spin along with each car, it offered quite a thrilling ride.

A common confusing point is regarding the similarity between three different models produced by Eyerly, The monster, the spider and the octopus. The confusion starts in that the Worlds of Fun Octopus is actually an Eyerly Monster, with a total of 24 cars (4 cars on 6 arms). The next smallest model, the Spider is most often seen at traveling carnivals due to its simpler and more compact size, as it only has a total of 12 cars (2 cars on 6 arms). The smallest model is rarely seen but is known as the Octopus and has a total of 8 cars (1 car on each of the 8 arms), it is also believed to be the oldest variation of the basic "Octopus-type" design. Like the Octopus none of these rides are able to lower all the arms and cars at the same time. There is only one variation of the "Octopus-type" ride that allows all the cars to lower and be loaded and unloaded simultaneously and that is the Monster ride manufactured by Schwartzkopf Enterprises. Like the rest of the Schwartzkopf rides they are rare.

Octopus is also the only ride in Worlds of Fun history that has been located in three separate "world" locations, with the first being in the Orient, as Oriental Octopus. In 1983, with the removal of Barnstormer in the Aerodrome, Oriental Octopus was repainted and renamed Tailspinner, a name it retained until the section was re-themed to Pandamonium in 1987 when it was renamed once again to Octopus. In 1997, when the section was re-themed to Bearenstain Bear Country, Octopus was removed to make way for the Bear Family Treehouse and put in storage, it was re-installed the following season (1998) in Scandinavia, in place of the Scandia Scrambler (that was moved to Americana). It continued to operate in Scandinavia until the 2014 season when it was removed permanently at the end of the season. It is believed many of the cars for Octopus as well as various ride parts were relocated and re-used at the Valleyfair Octopus ride.




Relevant Links and Sources

Eyerly Aircraft Company:http://lagoonhistory.com/project/eyerly-aircraft/



YouTube Videos


Octopus in Scandinavia

Octopus in Pandemonium (starting 6:30)

Additional Photos


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