JoshC.

Thorpe have updated their opening times on their website - they are now open every weekday this month (as opposed to having 10 close days), and are open 10-5 (as opposed to 10-4). They have also added two extra FN dates - Thursday 11th and 18th.

Let's be sensible here - there's a massive Blair Witch symbol hanging up, Thorpe released a Blair Witch pop badge and there's been lots of rumours of the maze returning. That all points to one thing...

If DBGT only cost £30, it now makes perfect sense why the VR headsets are always broken! Though it does explain a lot mind...

Not sure what's happened there, but here we go...

There was a pizza called The Edge at the time, but that was sheer coincidence - there was never any talk of a pizza hut sponsorship! The 'Edge' logo looked exactly the same as the Stealth logo, with no sponsorship in sight!

Construction has sped up with the launch track ('sped up', 'launch', geddit??)

I believe the sign with Edge was installed at one point, and some merch with the name on was made, but never sold. There might be some of it still out there though I guess. Other names that were considered, but didn't get as far as Edge, were Humdinger and Jonny Rocket's Drag Race.

The mysterious pop badge released today was a Blair Witch one, perhaps unsurprisingly. So still we wait for news.

It's next to the lake. Must be an Aquatrax. You could say that the 2015 flooding problem was a real...beach to deal with, so they will do everything to avoid going there again.

I've done 13 a few times this season now, and you know what. I bloody love it. It genuinely is my favourite ride at Towers now. I've always had a soft spot for it, but this year, I've really grown to love it. Yeah sure the outside section is a bit tame with all the trims, but you still get a bit of fun out of it. But it is ageing pretty well in fairness. But the indoor section is executed perfectly and is just so much fun. And as much as Merlin can get slaughtered for their dark themes, 13 works. It just does.

Some more information about Project 42... Source - https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/whats-on/family-kids-news/alton-towers-reveals-terrifying-brand-15098674 Expect some more official stuff soon I guess. Confirms that it will take place in Sub Terra (not that this is a surprise given the construction going on around there). No word on how much of Sub Terra they'll use though Similar-ish theme to Sub Species in some ways I guess, but still a different and interesting setting. Looking forward to what they have planned though!

They don't look like they're in a position where a tent pitch would go up though...

Image from Scare Tour...

Thorpe Park called. They said Tulley's are 14 years late to the party.

tbf I'd be very surprised if they didn't bring in at least one 'new' maze. Fright Nights is too big an event for them to not bring in something new. And with stuff like Blair Witch and Sanctum, they have at least got scope to change them and make them feel different enough. It's possible we could see Big Top or even Platform transformations to mazes. And for people blasting Blair Witch, I remember is being one of the best received mazes of 2015 - so there's potential for something like that to be good, even if another outdoor maze is not what Thorpe needs right now.

Unless my circumstances change, I'll be around from about 3/4ish

CHIP 7706 is a staff thing and has absolutely zero relation to Thorpe's next big thing.

Just because a maze hasn't started construction yet, doesn't mean it won't appear. Big Top V1 (or should that be Big Top V0.1?) didn't start construction until September 2015 (and it was basically mid-September too). And equally, just because a maze hasn't been advertised yet, that means little too - it's not uncommon for mazes to be announced in September. Admittedly, the rumours are cause for concern - there's no smoke without fire after all. And also the lack of any sort of advertisement until the past couple of days is a bit unusual - with The Year of The Walking Dead, in theory, attracting people who love scare attractions, it would make sense to push what's happening at Fright Nights a lot sooner? So yeah, there's cause for concern, but let's not completely rubbish the event until we hear something more concrete.

Says a lot that all the replies to the tweets are talking about potential IPs for a new attraction (none of them Blair Witch). Thorpe have conditioned their audience to expect IPs now, completely killing any potential scope for creativity beyond an IP now.

It's true that, this time last year, the Big Top tent was built and maze construction had started. Equally, when Big Top was on the beach, construction didn't start until early September. Let's not jump to conclusions about what that means, but just look at the gulf in quality between Big Top v1 and Big Top v3, and let that speak for itself for now. I hope we get something in the way of marketing soon. Whilst I hate making comparisons, Towers have announced their line up, given a tease of their new attraction, and been building for weeks now. Fills me with more confidence that their event will be under control, that's for sure.

Now that they've introduced a 4 bat rating (rather than maximum 3), hopefully that should go some way in making it a bit clearer that it's scary. Hopefully they haven't toned it down either.

Daily Star: OUTRAGE as theme park website hides reference to devastated Smiler crash.

I don't really see the point of this maze tbh?

I'll try and appear regardless of what date is chosen, though it'll probably be an evening appearance!

It's probably the unfortunate case that you've seen all the internet has to offer about the original X:\No Way Out. The theme and story was always very loose, even back in 1996 it wasn't the clearest or most obvious. The computer theme was just a case of responding to what was trendy at the time, and what teenagers thought was cool. No super deep backstory out anything of particular excitement related to anything else. It very much split public opinion, with some finding it dull and boring, some finding it sickening and some enjoying it as a fun novelty. It had to go through so many changes before they eventually had to give up the ghost and change it to X. And even then, it arguably only truly peaked in 2017 (and 2013 was a good year too tbf).