JoshC.

Banned for being half shark and half an eaten man.

Banned for being voted Biggest Fanboy 2013 and stealing away my crown. Not that I'm bitter or anything... ; )

It's taking shape! I imagine people will be concerned and say it looks awful right now. However, it's not even half-done yet, with the coaster-track ribs, more pieces of 'junk', lighting, teeth, etc. still to go in. Looking forward to the final result.

Anyone who read Benin's TR about Nigloland will be excited by this. Interview with Rodolphe; Project Manager of the park!

They didn't resubmit them, they altered them. There's still lodge houses (less of them), but then there's also the treehouses. The lodges do seem less Hobbit-like though.

Nice splashdown feature!

Totally agree. In general, I try to avoid Disney hype as I'm not the biggest Disney fanboy ever and there's always the expectation that because it's Disney, it's going to be spectacularly perfect. Even with avoiding it, I seem to have fallen into the hole of 'Well, this is Disney, why isn't it the best thing ever!?!'. Tad ironic I guess? Just shows how high the expectations for the place are really. If by 'Merlin'itis you mean a want to go out there and try other theme parks away from the Merlin Stronghold, then yes, yes I am!

As I say, I never really followed construction or anything with this, and I have no idea what I would expect from something like this. But when I look at parks like Phantasialand, Europa Park, Hansa Park, etc., I just can't help but think they could also build rides to that quality. Not to say that the quality of theming of the Mine Train isn't brilliant, but when I look at other parks out there, it doesn't exactly seem like it's a league above. No doubt everyone will love it; it does look like a fun ride. But I just don't think it's really got a special edge over many other rides at other parks. Of course, having not visited any of the parks I mentioned above, nor having gone to WDW, I can't say anything for certain. Maybe this just shows how high my expectations are for some of the European parks out there...

Merlin want major attractions to have a killer image and awesome-sounding tagline. No matter how much you dress it up, a Boomerang probably just won't fit in with that image. I just couldn't see it happening...

Can't say I was ever too interested in this during construction. Looking at it, I'm glad I wasn't. Doesn't look anything overly special (considering this IS Disney). The mine looks pretty cool mind.

Zodiac was installed in 2000, under the name Enterprise, as a temporary thing to compensate for the fact they had a reduced line up. I've heard that Thorpe did have in the pipeline the idea of installing a drop tower in Zodiac's location, but due to the above reasons, and the fact that Zodiac was probably proving popular, the park made it a permanent thing and were able to advertise it as a new attraction.

I had always thought it was officially confirmed that it was a smoker. But yeah, turns out it's just been a heavily rumoured, but where did that start from? I think that a cigarette butt seems like the most likely explanation, or an electrical fault if not that. Would be nice to know if they ever did come to a conclusive cause though, or at least where the cigarette rumour began!

I wish you could buy those posters. Or, in general, themed ride posters. I imagine there'd be too small of a market for them to be a worthwhile to sell though. Shame.

Ah, I've just checked and yes, it's saying 10am! I got myself confused - Thorpe no longer close at 5 on weekends, they close at at least 6. Oops. In that case, probably best to ignore a lot of what I just said; it may not be wholly true. Sorry :/

As we know, next month will see Thorpe Park give a slight retheme to their 115ft drop tower, Detonator. A general shift in target market has to led to the perhaps knee-jerk reaction to bring in a family-themed area, and the easiest way to go about that would be an IP. So we have 'Angry Birds Land', and Detonator will become 'Detonator: Bombs Away'. Who knows what this slight retheme will bring? Well, we will find out in little under a month's time anyway. With most eyes focused on the future, I've decided to turn my head and look back on the past. Detonator opened 13 years ago and is a staple thrill ride within the heart of the park. The ride and its overall experience have remained pretty much constant, so the ride's history seems far from exciting. However, the circumstances in which the ride even came to the park and the behind the scenes stories are far more interesting... The story starts on a Friday afternoon, in July 2000. A smoker discarded their cigarette into some bushes, which quickly started a fire; 'The Thorpe Park Fire'. Slight damage was done to Mr Rabbit's Tropical Travels. However, substantial damage was done to the nearby Wicked Witch Haunt ride. Wicked Witch Haunt was so severely damaged it could not be saved; the building was completely destroyed. Of course, the ride needed replacing. At this time, there were very few major rides at Thorpe, and the multi-million pound, record-breaking Colossus was in its planning stages. So the ride had to be cheap and not steal the limelight from that. Also, Thorpe were still very much a family-park, with a big focus on family rides. So the ride had to appeal to a large audience. The park's first choice was, however, not Detonator. Instead, it was this: Photo from Wikipedia It was a standard Vekoma SLC! The photo shows Traumatizer at Pleasureland Southport, and was later moved to Blackpool Pleasure Beach and named Infusion. The ride is a family roller coaster, very simple, nothing too special or exciting. Plus, it was quick and easy to construct. At the time, it would have fit the park perfectly. The plans were very quickly rushed together and submitted to the council (in fact, Traumatizer was used to judge noise levels for this new coaster). And, from what I can gather, they were approved. Unfortunately, the plans themselves are not online at all, so the exact look, location of the ride is unknown to me! But why was no such coaster built? Well, very simply put, it came down to troubles with the energy supply! The plan was to get the ride opened for summer 2001. However, associated costs with the ride and power supply for the ride (whatever that means) meant it wouldn't open by then. So the plans were shelved. At this point, we're in October 2000. The 2001 season would start in March; a mere 5 months away. So Thorpe's management decided to go for a drop tower. Due to the naturally thin structure, it would have little 'visual pollution', it was quick to construct and, though quite thrilling, did temporarily fill in a missing part of the park's line up at the time. Note - temporarily. The original plan was the have the ride operating for 1 season, then replace it with what another coaster. This is why Detonator 'broke through' Thorpe's height ceiling of 100ft - it was only meant to be around for a year and it was under special circumstances! Everything was all approved and everything was all good. Detonator opened at the start of the 2001 season, along with Zodiac and Vortex (funnily enough, Vortex opened rather late and the park were investigated by Watchdog for misrepresentation. Oops). Colossus was under construction and was hoped to put Thorpe Park 'on the map'. Behind the scenes, plans for a new roller coaster, namely Nemesis Inferno, were well underway. However, something unexpected happened. Detonator was popular. Really popular. In fact, it averaged "over 9 out of 10" on customer reviews. No park can afford to get rid of a ride that is THAT popular. It had to stay. So the utmost was done to ensure allowed for the ride to stay. Fortunately, the layout allowed for this to be the case. There was still one more problem though. The ride only had temporary planning approval. By the end of 2001, they would have to take it down. So an extension to this application was sought after. It was by no means a guarantee approval would be given, due to the fact the ride was tallest on park. But, fortunately, the ride was approved for another, temporary, 5 years. Why only 5 years? Well, Detonator was not in Thorpe's long term plans and it's a fairground ride. Could 6 years of constant operation be too much it? Would it maintain popularity for 5 more years? Would it fit in with the park then? The park weren't too sure. Of course, the ride stayed, and the park applied for permanent approval of the ride, which was granted. In fact, the MTDP at the time even indicated a second drop tower joining Detonator, but alas, it never happened. Detonator is, in terms of G-forces, the most intense ride on park. It's regarded as one of the better drop towers in the world and works so well within Thorpe Park. Yet the ride only arrived due to a series of accidents and misfortunes that the park had to get over. Had those accidents never happened, the park could well be very different and - in my opinion - worse off. Would we ever had gotten Inferno if a Vekoma SLC was put in place? Would said SLC still be here today? Would Thorpe be as popular as it is now? Who knows! All I know is that, 13 years later, Detonator remains a favourite to all. How nice, ey? May Detonator stand tall for many more years, regardless of theme... "Detonation...complete" Disclaimer: I cannot guarantee 100% accuracy behind this information. A lot of the information was deduced from past planning applications and, in some cases, such applications were not always complete. Should there be any information which you believe to be incorrect, please feel free to leave a comment and say so!

It used to have about 630 seats I think. So I should think around the same, as the seats don't look any bigger! I think it's planned the open quite late in May, probably in time for Half term at the end of the month. There's no official date as of yet. If they only plan to close Detonator for about a week before opening, I expect it'll close sometime in the middle of the month really.

Such occurrences were, I believe, always on weekends. This season, the park are always opening at half 9 for weekends and all holidays (except FN, as usual). So non-AP holders aren't missing out and the park are open for longer to AP holders.

Well if the park opens at 9:30, then presumably AP holders will get let in at 9. If it opens at 10, then AP holder will get in a 9:30.

It's something they've trialled recently this season. They only advertise it for Shark Hotel guests, but they also are letting AP guests in earlier too it seems. They try and have all rides available, but since advertised ride opening is half 9 (or 10, depending on the day I guess), it doesn't always happen. Towards the beginning of the season, it was more like 10-15mins early, but if it's now a full half hour early, then that's great!

Detonator's ORPs were taken down last season. They probably just weren't selling enough, and the photos weren't always perfect, and it was sometimes difficult to get a good photo with people together. There's no mention of it on the map that 'Detonator - Bombs Away' will have ORPs, so I doubt it'll come back.

From Efteling's Twitter (with the help of Google Translate). Rather short coaster to say the least. Considering the budget though, imagine the theming opportunities!

Must mean that this was an official pitch, and that TPC probably shouldn't have published it... Probably best to not really describe how it looked, just in case Thorpe don't want details known!

Banned for implicitly deciding Mark didn't want to go to the meet.

They replaced the restraints (well, repadded at least) a year or two back, so I can't see them replacing them for this. I doubt we'll see them paint it green though, but I guess you never can be too sure!

Still feel like that tilt when you're dropping is going to be really uncomfortable... Does look quite intimidating on ride though. The slow tilting to face forward will no doubt scare the living daylights out of most!