Sidders

That genuinely does look like one of the best B&M Hypers for a long time.

Brilliant feature - we need more blogs like this from the Senior Team and the Admin of TPM! It's fair enough having great first-hand information from Thorpe themselves to post, but what really makes this place the community it thrives to be is the knowledge that there are real people who have a passion for thrill rides behind both sites. I think more personal blogs from members willing to contribute would be a great opportunity to send out the right message about TPM and ManiaHub. Huge thanks once again for Mark's blog. Very fitting.

But this is Merlin; creativity is second to perceived physical impact a lot of the time (e.g. a Gerstlauer Eurofighter looks more imposing to the layman than a 'rickety old' Wooden Coaster). Sure, this isn't a problem to the extent of say, a Six Flags park, and most certainly, if any Merlin park can be expected to deliver on experience and magical escapism then Alton's your best bet, but I just feel like it's no harm done if Gardaland repeat the same style. To be fair you could criticise Heide Park for copying SAW Alive if we go by this logic. I like the idea of N:ST, and think one as far away as Italy won't matter one jot to anyone outside fanboyism. And on the topic of N:ST's reception - how can you tell if responses are mixed unless people write about them on forums? And why would they be on forums if not an enthusiast? Not food for thought or anything to antagonise you, but I just don't believe it's been mixed in the family and non-enthusiast market when I hear plenty of stories of people leaving the ride saying they enjoyed/were scared ****less by it.

And naturally, it would be incredulous for a park to spend $27M in a spanking new B&M that say, breaks a meaningless record when there's a sufficient nigh-on identical ride less than a stone's throw away. Wake up and smell the present. N:ST is a huge hit with all demographics since it's final effects have been installed. It's keeping gate figures up for the current season thus far (halted only by the weather and other temporary set-backs) and it making money for Merlin. Why wouldn't they want to install a similar attraction? Be sensible now - this isn't a Thorpe/Chessington situation, where practically neighbouring parks are replicating their ride line-up; Gardaland is in Italy - who cares about replicated ride line-ups when very few will ever go to both Alton Towers and Gardaland so often they'll feel cheated that the parks are offering similar rides? I don't see how Gardaland's "duplicate" (if it is indeed that sort of attraction) will even be that similar anyway. It's a multi-sensory dark attraction - hardly a narrow field of entertainment to explore is it?

Didn't they? Seems like a stellar idea from a business perspective.

Banned for working at Ian.

I've always wanted to know what it feels like to fall off a crane. A use for SkyRush after all.

Aww it's like Storm Surge but good.

'Switchblade Smiles'. They go on for miles.

Would be a good idea, but would really only be worth it if X:\No Way Out was actually removed. This puts horrible images of a club being built on X:\No Way Out's spot when it finally gets removed (quite soon, I believe), but here's hoping Thorpe do a bit more to the ride's memory than simply slap a sex pit for chavs right next to Colossus.

Cannot believe Intamin made that. Always thought Intamin were bad more in a Whiplash-And-Severe-Lacerations-To-Spinal-Chord sorta way, rather than possessing the ability to build something that looks like a bus on a Pinfari track...

Let's not forget though, that Leviathan did cost near-on $28,000,000 (. Being a B&M it's going to be bloody expensive, and seeing as Intamin don't seem to be making their massive sprawling monstrosities like Millennium Force or Expedition GeForce anymore, the only way a park can get a hold of an enormous Out-and-Back is by going to B&M. It's possible that Cedar Fair wanted the first +300ft B&M and realised that the only park with the available space was Canada's Wonderland. Although all arguments for Leviathan and wanting a massive Out-and-Back are voided when you glance at the other side of the park and wave at the far superior Behemoth. So yes, I'm in agreement - massively wasted opportunity. Leviathan seems to end where the MCBR should be.

Odd that I feel I should add this review specifically as the first post I've made in here for a while... http://unrealityshout.com/blogs/album-review-marina-the-diamonds-electra-heart Marina & The Diamonds - 'Electra Heart'

Thank you Sidders.

Yeah, Da Font are awesome and many companies use fonts from that site. In fact, I'm pretty sure Da Font's logo uses the same font that this forum page-head uses...

You're all wrong; it's Thorpe's new 4000ft Super Ultra Mega Lightning Coaster called Zoom Bitch and it's opening next weekend. Back on earth - Mid, Medium... They mean the same thing, really.

The GCI Big Fun is a super-compact coaster design and very rarely exceeds 70ft in height. Considering Thorpe's planned Woodie was to be 27m (just shy of 100ft) and nothing like the compactness of the Big Fun, I'd say it was just a standard GCI Coaster with Millennium Flyer trains. Tussauds were all for the Woodie, but there were rumours that something to do with how the reclaimed land did not provide sufficient grounding for such a dense support structure that prevented it's approval. Another rumour, again unconfirmed, was that the density of the support and track structure would completely impede the view across the park from surrounding villages/towns, whereas the slender poles of steel coasters would not have this problem, so it could've been down to planning restrictions that ousted the Woodie plans. Whilst either of those stories could've played a part, the one with the most factual backing was that Merlin/Thorpe, after conducted their "market research" (cough), rejected the plans for a Wooden Coaster on account of the public not realising they're perfectly safe (excusing Gwazi). They then quickly turned to steel, proposing the idea of a Flyer but something to do with the price pushed them away. Considering most of the budget would be simply buying the actual coaster, leaving very little money to theme it (this never scared them away before, obviously, but all Merlin's B&Ms have come about as part of a three-part deal e.g. Raptor/Krake/The Swarm - whereas no deal was going to be struck if the Flyer was built in 2009) Thus, they chose an easily-marketable steel coaster design quite rare for larger-scale theme parks and whacked an IP on it to suffice any extra themeing/marketing costs. Apparently though, the SAW franchise was there from the beginning. Not sure how reliable that information is though as the original leaked rumours pertaining to Project Dylan's theme were of an abandoned sawmill, and a Woodie would've been perfect for that. P.S. But of course, the Thrills Workshop staff did mention that the Woodie plans were never actually dropped; only shelved indefinitely, so maybe it's not anything to do with the land not being sufficient at all and we may see one in the future. I just hope Merlin pull their finger out of their arse and don't wait for some other UK park to build a new Woodie before they get the balls to do it themselves.

Mayte, I heard that song in August last year. Catch up...

Screw Thorpe's coasters... WILD MOUSE?

I get the same message too! THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE.

This man understands me so well.

Ohhh sexy inverts...

Leviathan's will just be a tin tube. Always is.

Not that we know of - it's just The Swarm Island or Island C (as reference to the name given to the island mass on the MTDP which came to have The Swarm built on it) to most of us on here. Thorpe have already shown they wish to move away from the focus of themed areas, but will continue to theme their rides and at least the surrounding area to create a fair bit of continuity.