One of the biggest novelties in the world of steel-tracked looping rollercoasters in the mid-1990s was the stand-up type train. It had originated fourteen years earlier when Togo built the first ever stand-up coaster in Japan. Two years later, Arrow Dynamics converted the trains of Worlds of Fun's Extremeroller to a prototype standing type, with the same being done to those of Six Flags St. Louis's Rail Blazer a year later, better known as River King Mine Train. Both of those attempts at stand-up coasters ended with the trains being converted back to traditional sit-down, but the idea was out there, and couldn't be put back away just yet. Improved stand-up designs appeared shortly from other manufacturers, including Intamin. 1990 Was the year that this was taken a step further, when Bolliger and Mabillard made their formal debut to the coaster world with an improved-comfort stand-up ride. The Swiss duo went on to build several more stand-ups, then Ohio's Cedar Point, which had worked with B&M on their 1994 inverted looper Raptor, approached Bolliger and Mabillard wanting to take the stand-up coaster to the next level. In Cedar Point tradition, the ride would break all records for height, speed, and length in its class. The coaster was announced in late 1995 as Banshee, which later became Mantis. At 145 feet high and $12 million, Mantis opened as the tallest, most record-breaking stand-up coaster in the world, and largest thing on the eastern end of Cedar Point (that is, until the 31-story Millennium Force came along four years later). The ride sent thrill seekers through 3,900 feet of brightly-painted tracks at up to 60 miles an hour, turning the world upside-down four times with the first stand-up dive loop element and first diagonally-tilted 'inclined loop' to be seen on any coaster, in addition to a 12-story vertical loop and corkscrew flip serving as the first and last inversions.

1,800 Riders every hour fill up three 32-passenger trains for Mantis in standing position, straddling bike-like 'seats' and pulling down elongated yellow over-the-shoulder harnesses. The train makes a slight curve as it leaves the station, lift hill bound. Climbing slowly, riders ascend the slope to 145 feet and level out, then make a dip off of the chain. Mantis' track pulls around to the right as it dips and rises, then lines up with the first drop and starts down - down at a 52-degree angle riders plunge, pulling out and starting up through the first loop. Standing straight up, thrill seekers are taken up 119 feet as they curve vertically through the loop, up 180 degrees and back down another 180 degrees to the bottom. A minor curve to the left precedes the beginning of a 103-foot dive loop taking the track up and twisting over to double back underneath itself as it sends riders through a half roll and then half loop. After the second inversion comes high-speed non-inverting action with a fast, banked carousel curve to the right encircling the station area. The coaster navigates its inclined loop next, which begins by banking 45 leftward degrees and heading up a complete loop tilted diagonally on its side. At the top of the inversion, riders can look down at the ground from a 135-degree angle as they start back down through the second half. The train is sent over a banked hop to the left, which is followed quickly by an upwards curve in the opposite direction spiraling onto the mid-course block brakes. A dive off of the brakes carries riders down to the fourth and last inversion: a corkscrew to the left; then the red rails curve in a left banked turn for the first part of a figure-right maneuver. The red rails quickly reverse direction and curve to the right to circle the dive from the block brakes, then left again to wrap around the corkscrew exit. A right bank brings the ride up onto the brake run, then second right L-turn sends Mantis riders back to the station.

Since Mantis, two stand-up rides from B&M took riders exceedingly higher, faster, and upside down more, but the concept would die out in 1999 leaving Mantis and its sister rides to provide the rare stand-up thrill.