Review

It must be the engineering gene, but I love roller coasters - especially when it comes to figuring out how they're constructed. As a kid, I tried on numerous occasions to build working models of roller coasters, and though I never had much success making them operate, I had a great time figuring out the design all the same. Perhaps those days long ago of tinkering with model coasters is why I jumped at the chance to build and review Coaster Dynamix's Comet, a fully operational, HO-scale roller coaster. Other than a simple power supply, a few basic modeling tools and some plastic cement, pretty much everything you need to build a working, model roller coaster comes in the box.

I've built a lot of kits over the years, but the Coaster Dynamix product is by far one of the best organized and documented kits I've ever put together. The entire coaster, with the exception of the material for the stringers and handrails (these are in bulk strips), comes neatly precut in clearly marked plastic bags. Each bag is one step in the 32-page instruction booklet. I built the kit in approximately six hours, taking periodic breaks to let the cement dry before moving on. The finished model looks good, and it runs reasonably well - in fact it's better than any other HO- scale, working, model roller coaster I've seen. However, the Comet still requires some tweaking to get things rolling smoothly.

First, the model needs to be set on a nearly perfectly level surface. Otherwise the cars tend to stall out in the hills. Also, the joins between the track rails need to be perfectly smooth. The slightest bump on the rails will cause the cars to come off. Sanding and double checking the rail joins took far longer than any other part of construction, however, you'll know when you've got it right, because the coaster will glide effortlessly. Also, though the instructions call for weight only in the front car of the train, I found adding about half that much weight again to the middle car improved operation. Finally, the cars themselves are made from a slippery plastic, one that won't glue with liquid plastic cement or typical cyanoacrylate adhesive (CA). I used Loctite All Plastics Super Glue, a two-part CA to keep the parts together, and it worked very well.

The running action of the coaster is probably as close as you're going to get in miniature. After all, while you can scale down model structures, you can't scale down gravity. The coaster glides realistically through the corners, but it moves much too fast through the hills. However, the HO- scale Preiser figures I added to our sample model don't seem to mind all that much, and despite the excessive speed, the coaster is still a blast to watch.