Colossus: The Fire Dragon

Colossus began its life not at Lagoon but on the German traveling-fair circuit, where Anton Schwarzkopf built it in 1981 as a one-off Doppel-Looping model with an extra helix curve for showmen Oscar Bruch and Werner Robrahn. It toured fairs across Germany — including stops in Hanover, Stuttgart, Bremen, and Hamburg — for roughly two years before Lagoon purchased the transportable coaster and installed it permanently on the South Midway.

The ride opened at Lagoon on April 1, 1983 as the park's fifth roller coaster and immediately became its tallest and fastest, a title it held until the Sky Scraper tower opened eight years later. Two back-to-back 65-foot vertical loops and the ride's namesake extra curve pack sustained g-forces into 2,850 feet of steel track, characteristic of Schwarzkopf's compact, force-heavy looping designs of the era.

Lagoon added the dragon-themed "Fire Dragon" branding and fire-breathing artwork to the ride's structure later that same year, giving the previously bare Colossus name a thematic identity it never had touring Germany. The following year, People magazine named it one of the top 10 coaster rides in the country.

More than four decades after its Lagoon debut, Colossus: The Fire Dragon remains one of the relatively few Schwarzkopf coasters still operating anywhere in North America.