JoshC.

The nitpicking in this thread is unbelievable. Imagine of forums like this were rife in the early SWs... "Europe's first inverted coaster" "but but but what about Vampire, not exactly true!!!!" "The world's first vertical drop coaster" "but but but it's only 88.8 degrees!!!" "The world's first next generation flying coaster" "but but but what does next generation MEAN, there's been lots of other flying coasters!!!" It's the first new woodie in 20+ years. It's something to brag about just a tiny bit, after fans and some of the public have wanted for ages. Better than some forced tagline, or a "so much fire is used we've had to forewarm the local hospital's burns unit just in case..." line. Also, literally everywhere makes their products look better for promotional images, not just theme parks. You going to moan that the Big Mac doesn't look exactly like it does on the board at McDonald's? You going to moan that the buttons on that new shirt you bought aren't as shiny as it was on the retailer's website? In saying that, I'm curious as to how the effects will look in the daylight. They've said they're using effects to give the illusion of fire - I've only ever seen that done in lower level lighting at a particular angle. So it'll be interesting to see how they're going to be setting fire to the Wickerman at all angles in all lighting levels.

The park have released a couple more details about the coaster, including the name - Tiki Waka: And some images from Coasters World... The area, which will be the first 'World of Walibi' to be created under the new brand, will be called Tiki, and there'll also be a jungle trail thing - called Tiki Trail - which weaves round the coaster. The whole thing looks great. I like the name, the concept for the cars are fab, the colour scheme is great. This is shaping up to be a fantastic investment.

Double post but oh well... Another photo of the photo box, showing the contents: The pin badge, USB stick, wooden block, (cardboard) photo frame and lanyard are all exclusive to the box and presumably won't be sold in any other way. You all get the certificate and jazz like that. That is definitely not as good as marketed. Sounded like it was giving you a piece of wood of a similar size to what was sold during Scarefest, a lenticular photo frame, etc. Still don't have a problem with the product, but the pricing is all wrong - it should be closer to the £30-40 in my opinion (because it is EXCLUSIVE and limited and all that). I can't see them changing the price now, but I really think they've mucked up there..

That's the way the industry is heading though. People respond best to "World's first...", "Continent's first...", "Country's first..." or "The (tallest/fastest/longest/steepest)..." or "Most expensive..." these days. It's not just Merlin who do it, you look throughout America and it's everywhere. Across Europe, the likes of Phantasialand, Efteling and Liseberg do it, but so too are the Walibi parks, the Poland parks and everywhere in between. People may not like it, but that's how the industry is responding to get the attention of the masses. So it's not really people's stupidity. Of course, the key is to build a quality park and have these attractive headlines to go with it. Get guests to come for the "world's whatever", but stay for the park..

Similar thing was done with Rise of the Demon around this time last year. Personally, I'm not sure how effective this type of marketing is, but nice to see Thorpe experimenting more I guess. Doesn't really help that people are either disinterested at this stage, or just don't know what's going on.

Pfft, Taron's first airtime hill tries to fling me into the heart of Brühl... Plus its sideways flicks make up for the lesser amount of airtime for me.. [/Leave_Taron_Alone.gif]

Hate to throw a spanner in the works, but no... I have better things to spend my money on...like the Loggers Leap photo box that'll be released...

The airtime hill looks like it's been designed to fling you out of the train and onto Big One. Nice! Really looking forward to this!

The park are selling a limited edition photo box thing: https://shop.altontowers.com/collections/souvenirs/products/wicker-man-premium-photography-box It includes some special photo, photo frame, USB, general Merlin merch, a SW8 block of wood and some numbered certification of how exclusive it is (250 being made). Neat idea, and between this, the engraved bricks and the overly expensive wood, there's clearly a market for premium merch at Towers and they're fully capitalising on it. Pretty certain that all the stuff in the box can't be worth more than £50/£55, so they're effectively making up to £30 a box to sell a bit paper with a number of it, and making extra money as passholders won't save money like they would if they bought the pin, magnet, etc seperately. I've said it before and I'll say it again - Merlin know their merch.

So the Adventure Island meet was my first visit to the park, so just thought I'd chuck in a couple of random thoughts: -Rage is okay. I found it a bit uncomfortable after the first inversion. -Adventureville is hilarious. -Spooksville is, erm, meh? -Mighty Mini Mega is probably the best coaster there. Never thought I'd say that about a Pinfari. -The Whip is fab. -The 'feelsgood' restaurant is nice. -Their bowling game breaks too easily... Very meh park. The weather didn't help no doubt, but I like how creative they've been with their space available. Looks like their kiddie coaster is also going to be built on top of a new building now too.

I'm looking forward to seeing Duel get some work. I know quite a few people aren't fond of it following the years of cheap fixes and such (and some still hate the fact it's a shooter), but I do think it's a fun ride which is a bit understated in the line up these days. If they can give it a decent tart up, and give it some more suitable (but equally fab) music, I'd be very happy! I hope they do keep the same guns though - I generally find the new ones on Tomb Blaster are horrendous on any shooter.

Some quotes from the park: The ride will close in September, and open July 1st next year. There'll be a new name and theme. https://www.looopings.nl/weblog/9499/Walibi-Holland-vervangt-Robin-Hood-door-hypermoderne-houten-achtbaan.html Fantastic to see more serious investment in the park, and more stuff in The Netherlands

And in a twist, it looks like the park have decided to do their big new thing for 2019, and it'll seemingly be an RMC of their Vekoma woodie, Robin Hood: https://www.facebook.com/walibiholland/posts/1857198800988568

Colour me... intrigued. I have said time and time again that scare attractions don't work in theme parks outside of Halloween. And for now, I stand by that. Yes, demand is growing, but there's so many independent events all around the country all year round that the parks can't really outperform them consistently enough. However, this seems to be giving a good mix of scare stuff. An 'extreme' maze (whether that's marketing speil or they're actually doing a Face it Alone style thing I remain sceptical over, but we'll see) for a week, the scary weekends and Saw Alive in summer. Also, the Zombie Hunt sounds awesome might I add - imagine a proper scare zone survival type game on the island behind Swarm or Treasure Island. If that's what we're getting, I'm down for that! That's a good mix of stuff, and with their limited availability, it can definitely draw on that appeal and be kept fresh. So there's definitely a huge amount of potential there. And frankly, it's good to see more events at the park again. On the other hand, my biggest concern is the fact that for the third year in a row, we've got yet another super scary thing as headline marketing draw. Have they decided that the family marketing route isn't going to give them enough of a draw? So are they just targeting the adult market again whilst knowing that families will still come regardless? Who knows. But it's definitely a weird direction they're going in at the mo.

The track replacement is going along quickly: https://twitter.com/Jaysen_Leslie/status/960466186894041090/photo/1

I go down the local papershop and nick a pack of fruit bastilles...

From the park's Facebook It's coming along nicely!

A neat little rendering of how this will look: Saucey: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?p=144980915

They don't normally release them till later in February if memory serves me correctly. I'm sure that when they do release them they'll give a warning a couple of days before. Are Towers doing a preview day this year? They don't normally do Annual Pass previews, only staff and John Lewis usually.

Pretty pictures

Yeah I'll be there too!

More from Blackpool's almighty leader... https://twitter.com/MandsThompson/status/959376905316298752 That last photo

This has made a lot of progress... https://twitter.com/veilstrup/status/958986143818833921

Hex is sad - all that TLC for nothing...

Sounds like rubbish to me imo - as a manufacturer, Mack wouldn't care for what Merlin do. All they'd really care about is if they'd give them the money to build whatever. And aren't Mack the European representatives for GCI (one way or another)? Would be hard to see Wickerman getting the go ahead if there was a very reluctant and awkward middle man involved!