Luke_A

Spaghetti Bolognese would be my favourite. Or any other pasta based meal, mmm. Macaroni Cheese is awesome too. I agree with Sidders, Chicken Korma is the best curry. Chicago Town currently have these pizzas which are 'Takeaway style' and OMG they are the best supermarket pizzas ever, one of them with curly fries, nom nom.

Oh my god. ahaha!

I've recently downloaded all of these, had the Top Scan one for a while and I must agree, they are great simulators! I hope there are more to come! Here's the Extreme (Known as Techno Power in Germany) one if people want to download, click 'More by this developer' to see the other ride sims - https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/virtualrides-techno/id530452523?mt=8 The Coaster Crazy app is also quite good, certainly reminds me of RCT3, although is much more bearable if you play it on iPad.

Chief Rangers Carousel (5) Colossus (5) Depth Charge (5) Detonator (5) Flying Fish (5) Logger's Leap (5) Mr Monkey's Banana Boat Ride (5) Nemesis Inferno (6) Neptune's Beach (2) Quantum (4) Rocky Express (5) Rumba Rapids (5) Rush (6) Samurai (5) Saw: The Ride (7) Slammer (5) Stealth (5) Storm In A Teacup (5) The Swarm (5) Tidal Wave (5) Vortex (5) X:/No Way Out (5) Zodiac (5) Neptune's Beach -1 Saw: The Ride +1

The floor had to be changed from screw driven to hydraulic because the screw drives were driven by 4 individual electric motors, if one of them motors were to fail for whatever reason, then the other 3 would still carry on and potentially buckle the floor, could have been dangerous. Whereas with the hydraulic floor there is one central motor which pulls all 4 cylinders down in unison, more reliable. I'm sure the screw driven one was much faster than the current one! Also, Thorpe could have Vortex programmed to start rotating as the floor lowers, then have the swings starting immediately as it is fully lowered, many other Afterburners & Freak Out's do this, would improve capacity that little bit more.

I think so, as Star Flyer has only just been added to the website earlier this week.

The rides are due to pull on to Hyde Park tomorrow, some will be later pulling on throughout the week. Wilde Maus XXL, Christmas Coaster and 1 other coaster (most likely Euro Coaster) will be attending. Danter's Air is returning. Power Tower is returning. Mellor's Giant Wheel is returning as well as their new 230ft Star Flyer which was recently set up in London and has been to Hull Fair since. 'Ski Jump' AKA 'Oblivion' (KMG Freak Out (16 riders)) is likely to be replaced with 'Showtime' which is a KMG Afterburner 24. Currently unconfirmed but **rumoured only** that Buwalda's who own the inverted Euro Coaster may be bringing their new Mondial Turbine, instead of 'Blizzard' AKA 'Booster' attending. Most of the less major rides such as the 'Deep Impact' Miami and Waltzer, Dodgems etc will all stay the same. As far as I know the 'Ski Party' Fabbri Mega Dance was drafted in quickly last year as a last minute ride due to another different ride being unable to attend. The best way to find out what's certainly there now is to just wait and see the pictures soon! I'm sure they'll confirm everything not long from now. It's set to be the possibly the best Winter Wonderland yet with a new improved layout and what looks to be some changes in rides in favour of improved capacity.

"The Smiler" sounds tacky if I'm honest, that's the sort of thing I'd expect from an RCT3 pre-named ride. With SW7 I was expecting something more technical, to fit in with the X-Sector theme, even if they were to go with something that was the complete opposite approach of theme to that of Oblivion and the surrounding rides. Ah well, it's just a rumour with reasoning... I hope it isn't true, even though I'm more bothered about the actual ride itself rather than the theme or name.

I must say that looks absolutely brilliant, it's like they've taken all the best thrill ride ideas such as the Super Rides 'Superstar', KMG 'XLR8', and Zamperla 'Power Surge' and bundled it all into one fast, powerful, unique ride; just what was expected really. Must get down to Southend to try this thing out! I also wonder if they'll ever go into producing these things and putting them on sale... Unlikely but could be popular considering how unique it looks.

Unusual rant here I guess... Knock-off "non-genuine" Apple cables and chargers. Got home at about midnight last night and (stupidly) plugged my iPhone 4S into a cheap alternative Apple 30-pin connector which someone in my household had bought... Unaware to this I unplugged my iPhone from the non-Apple 30-pin cable today to find that it had ripped 4 of the pins out the bottom of my iPhone as well as a chunk of plastic from around the connector, it didn't come out easily and I'm usually very careful with things like this. Now I have to pay £49 for a whole new 30-pin connector to be fitted in my iPhone and for it to be sent off to MendMyi (great company from past experience and usually really quick service..!) as although charging still works, syncing data over USB can be temperamental, which would also prevent me from ever selling my iPhone if I didn't get it fixed. Mainly my fault really but it just annoyed me so much that one little thing causes so much trouble! Also typical for me to have always used Apple chargers in the past and then the one time I don't it destroys my phone.

What. On. Earth. How could you possibly not notice this!

Regarding the cars, I don't know if I should spoiler this or not but have done just in case.

Tut tut, double post. Short video here, GateKeeper's footers are now partially poured with some looking done and ready for steel!

That's great news for Liseberg, as if they didn't have a great collection of roller coasters & rides already! Look forward to hearing & seeing more about this.

Here is a more detailed documentary style video; showing an outline for the whole demolition procedure for Space Spiral!

KMG have joined Facebook recently, and have posted a lot of very cool & some possibly unseen before photo's of their rides, including a few of Vortex and other park model Afterburners, here's some of Vortex in it's early days at Thorpe Park and also a photo of it testing outside their factory in the Netherlands. Just thought I'd share them here! They say that "Production & Assembly" pictures are going to be added to their page at some point too, there may well be some of Vortex in there too! Photo's of other rides on their new Facebook page here. https://www.facebook.com/pages/KMG-Europe-BV/355142571240840

I'm unsure if Mondial do park models of the Top Scan or not. Windseeker & a few other rides are available for parks but unsure about Top Scan. Samurai must be a travelling model as if you look under the back of the ride whilst exiting the Saw building/lift area, you can see the central trailer with wheels attached still underneath the ride. It looks like they're preparing to take it off somewhere now, the main arm looks like it's ready to be pulled away (that's if they're actually removing it from it's spot) in Josh's photo. Let's just hope it comes back strong in 2013..! Lowered down Top Scan below, like how Samurai is now.

And this is Space Spiral now...

BOOM and Space Spiral's gone!

Wilde Maus XXL is confirmed as attending Winter Wonderland 2012/2013! This extended Mack Wild Mouse features a fun-house like queue area, has 2 huge drops and is just generally the best looking travelling Wild Mouse in existence! Looks great!

Pepsi. (Max)

Looks great, also looks like there is an MCBR in there too, so the first 3 train Wing-Rider? Also 8-row trains... Gonna be a great high capacity coaster for the front of the park! Colours look fresh, and around 170ft tall with a top speed of around 67mph, sounds impressive! That airtime hill looks promising, although the stretch of track leading up to that may be a prime spot for a trim knowing B&M. Looks like a great coaster anyway, The Swarm's Zero-G is one of the best inversions I've ever experienced so 2 of them should be brilliant!

Oh Prince Charles.

Boris Johnson decided to try out the zip wire in Victoria Park today, surprise surprise; in true Boris style, it all went wrong and he got stuck holding 2 flags 20meters from the end. Lol!