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Do think maybe something in this, if they were planning to put a maze in black mirror it makes sense to keep slammers old queue to use that, with slammer removed it’s a fairly large area, with the age of lots of Thorpes flats it would be nice to see something new on this front.

Could well be! That’s exciting if it is! I suppose the queue clearance could be with fright nights in mind, because I think a couple of weeks back weren’t they clearing out the Black Mirror stuff? The trademark application is interesting!

Hi guys. Slammer has not operated at Thorpe Park since 2017, but as of late, some developments have occurred that lead me to believe that we may be seeing development on the Slammer site. The first thing to note is that Thorpe Park have said for a while that they intend to remove Slammer by the end of the year. Now this is not a smoking gun on its own, and I accept that, but my thought is; why would they remove it if they didn't intend to replace it at some point? It's been there for 7 years; what harm would a few more do if they aren't intending to put something there? That is not the only piece of evidence I cite by any means, however. Or even a particularly compelling piece of evidence compared to some others. Another piece of evidence I cite is a recent trademark application by Merlin's trademarking company. In recent days, Merlin's trademarking company have filed a trademark for the name "Skybound", with all of the usual uses listed: https://www.facebook.com/AttractionSource/posts/830235939140659?ref=embed_post This would indicate to me that Merlin are planning to install an attraction somewhere within their estate that is to be named Skybound, but I can't think of any currently known Merlin plans that would fit this overly well. I don't see this name being very befitting of Project Ocean at Alton Towers, and I think this is too soon to be for Project Horizon at Alton Towers. However, it is worth noting that the Slammer site is within the area that Thorpe Park is now coining as "Fearless Valley", the new area surrounding Hyperia. And I don't know about any of you, but given that Hyperia's theme/style centres around flight, Skybound sounds to me like it would be quite a fitting name for an accompanying flat ride addition to Fearless Valley... Finally, Thorpe Park have now begun clearing the old queue of Slammer with machinery, as per Thorpe Park Mania on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thorpeparkmania/posts/958603549598834?ref=embed_post If they're clearing the queue, I reckon they must be intending to do something with it... Could all of this potentially be pointing towards some sort of new development on the old Slammer site? I think it's very possible... although I'm not saying that this is confirmed by any means or even much of a rumour. This is purely me linking a few things together and offering my thoughts on what they could potentially mean. I could well be adding 2 and 2 and getting 5 here, but I think that these pieces of evidence could well suggest some sort of new development on the former Slammer site. What does anyone else think?

That inverted LIM launch on Voltron is ridiculous! It looks amazing though, like a catalog of every optional extra Mack Rides offers. And I think Mack took the weak launch coaster critisim personally as Voltron has dual blade LIMs which sound like they are more punchy than they were previously.

It feels too late to be adding a story in now. It will be a shame if the coaster doesn't do as well because of the lack of theming compared to other recent coasters. Building a new coaster is exactly what Thorpe was missing for the last 10 years and I hope Merlin realise there is a huge public appetite for coasters that are well themed in matching areas after the success of Nemesis. I'm sure the ride itself will be great but there's no viewing area, no big theming element like many recent coasters and not even any train lighting like Icon has. In comparison to Towers, Gloomy Wood and Forbidden Valley honestly feel like you're in a different park. Smoke, lights, animatronics, roaming actors, sound effects like radio chatter and helicopter blades just bring the areas to life. This is the standard I want to see Merlin bring to Thorpe Park. But if they want to turn it into an amusement park, just embrace that direction and stop trying to half make it into a cohesive theme.

We're a bit late for that... Still nice to hope though

Less story videos more nice queue pls.

I agree - it’s all gone a bit weird. This recent weirdness and the prison yard queue have been quite disappointing. Don’t get me wrong, the ride is going to be amazing - I just think they’ve missed a few opportunities 😬 What happened to the “Everest” style teasers we were getting at the start? Shame they didn’t go down that road. I suppose it wouldn’t be Thorpe without a bit of head scratching would it 😂

An island like no other some might say.

Still think its kind of stupid that they scrapped the whole viewing area plaza, sure the ride isn't themed but at least it would've made a nice vibe around the area but no

Fearless Valley, everyone

This might be controversial, but I have to say that I really don’t see the point of heavily promoting the “story” for Hyperia. If there was ever a ride where an in-depth backstory was pretty much redundant, I think this is it. The ride has next to no theming, and unlike many Merlin rides, it pretty much doesn’t appear to focus on theming or storytelling at all. If I were Thorpe, I’d be ditching any major focus on the theme or story in marketing and just going all in on the coaster itself. Just hammer home that silhouette of the layout and its giant elements and hammer home the records, with only the very vague “find your fearless” imagery present as an indication of the theme/style. To be fair, I think they’ve done that pretty well up to this point, but the marketing seems to have taken a bit of a weird turn in the last couple of days. Granted, I’m no marketing expert by any means, but the approach of the last couple of days is certainly not how I’d approach marketing Hyperia. The coaster itself is the key strength of this project, so why not play to your strengths? I fear that this sudden focus on the theme and “story” of Hyperia will only invite criticism regarding the very minimalistic nature of the actual ride theming. I’ve never objected to Hyperia being minimally themed. I think it’s par for the course for a coaster of this size; rides of this size speak for themselves, they’re very hard to theme heavily, and even parks known for heavy theming (e.g. Europa Park, PortAventura) have themed their hyper coasters very minimally. However, I think that if Thorpe want Hyperia to be a minimally themed ride that focuses solely on the coaster itself, I think they need to stick to that in the marketing. I think this “backstory” marketing sets people up for a heavily themed ride that doesn’t exist, and I fear that it will draw attention to the ride’s minimal theming and away from the massive coaster itself, the main strength of the project.

The video in all its glory... Video is fine enough, but I agree with the mish-mash of directions. That backstory fits a themed ride area. A mountainous-looking station, being a cave that Hyperia took refuge in, would be a start, for example. Thing is, there seems to be a lot of want online for a backstory and a theme. There seems to be a common opinion these days, especially with younger enthusiasts and more casual fans, that "theming + story = better", and so they are necessary for a good ride. Of course, those things are good, but they need to be done correctly and in a worthwhile manner. Feels like Thorpe saw it as a box to check, and came up with something. We'll see how it all comes together. I'm not against either approach (light on the theme and just make it look nice vs theme and story), but it feels like they've tried to get the best from both and risk not hitting either.

The original video not being in HD wasn't the problem. Come back DBGT animation all is forgiven.

They’ve re-uploaded it now It’s all a bit wtf. Feels like a real “doing your homework on the school bus” situation. Hopefully this disappears soon as honestly it cheapens the whole thing. They’ve made the decision not to theme the ride - I think just go with that. It’s too late to have this AI generated stuff tacked on, it really takes away from what they’ve built I think.

I did, can't believe they've deleted it already. They were getting stick because it was in portrait but evidently that's because it's meant for the queue line screens. Didn't go much on it, and felt it unnecessary to be honest but meh. I'm just gutted I missed AIGate as I was working.

Did anyone else catch the promo video that Thorpe have already deleted? Aside from it being excessively random (Swarm got some complaints for not being particularly focused on the coaster so they do it worse) it really feels like their marketing recently is all over the shop.

The station isn't even a problem, it's the horrendous queue line that is. It looks nasty, like a prison cell.

Shambhala is probably a semi decent example of what parks can do to have a decent level of themeing yet let the ride speak for itself. It's like a budget version of Icon's station here.

I think the lack of theming with Hyperia was always to be expected though, it’s rather difficult to theme something 236ft tall. However, that said, I do agree Thorpe could have done more with the stylising of the coaster, maybe some rock work or stand out theming pieces where the ride swoops close to the ground. We’ve had the debate about it being an old era Merlin project taken over by the new team before, and I think this has definitely had an impact on the theme. So it’s not entirely a complete reflection on the future of the park, but it also doesn’t pain a good impression on visitors; Thorpe’s newest coaster is a gold box with an incoherent theme about flying or something.

It looks so poor compared 😢

Hey does anyone have the Tidal Wave mix/es used to present day? There's one on YouTube but it's very short and I have no idea if it's still used so if anyone can send it over and/or can provide info, I'd be very grateful. Thank you! - Angel

bommmmm, strings! the, the, strings!

Looks like the new flat in Forbidden Valley is set to be a top spin! Buzzing about this. Flat rides are exactly what towers need right now and love a good Topspin. Such crowd pleasers off ride too. Fingers crossed its a Huss

bop bang bang we have done, as much as we can, but with no money, and no plan, we have to eat flan bop bang bang, bop bang bang