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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.

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 😂

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

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.

Anyone concerned about the lack of themeing? This is essentially a tin shed rollercoaster… not a chance the landscaping is ready for opening. After strong themes around all of Thorpes previous rollercoasters (bar maybe stealth) I’m feeling kinda disappointed especially looking at what Mac have done with Vultron. Or will this turn into a 2 year project whereby next years new addition will be some added themeing to the ride?