Jack F Posted April 1, 2015 Report Share Posted April 1, 2015 Nice joke guys.... http://www.thorpeparkmania.co.uk/news/01-04-2015/'Frozen-The-Ride'-Coming-2016 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Posted April 1, 2015 Report Share Posted April 1, 2015 Who's joking? The concept art I've seen for it is visually stunning. Jack F, MachoMachine and Tom 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshC. Posted April 1, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 1, 2015 Who's joking? The concept art I've seen for it is visually stunning. Don't worry, the non-believers will have the egg on their face when the concept art is released! Kerfuffle 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merry-go-girl Posted April 1, 2015 Report Share Posted April 1, 2015 Nice joke guys.... http://www.thorpeparkmania.co.uk/news/01-04-2015/'Frozen-The-Ride'-Coming-2016 Happy April 1st to you too! Jack F 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Allgood Posted April 2, 2015 Report Share Posted April 2, 2015 If its true its going to be the most expensive project Merlin and Tussards have ever done I'm sure we can put money on it being trackless simply because of the cost of the technology Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
holtjammy16 Posted April 2, 2015 Report Share Posted April 2, 2015 I thought we already knew it was gonna cost around £30 million? or have I just pulled that out of thin air? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshC. Posted April 2, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 2, 2015 I thought we already knew it was gonna cost around £30 million? or have I just pulled that out of thin air? That's just a rumour at the moment, though has come from a couple of different sources. Thorpe haven't given any indication whatsoever about the budget! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexander Posted April 2, 2015 Report Share Posted April 2, 2015 Well they're gonna need the 30m budget to pay for the frozen ip alone... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted April 2, 2015 Report Share Posted April 2, 2015 Well they're gonna need the 30m budget to pay for the frozen ip alone... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexander Posted April 2, 2015 Report Share Posted April 2, 2015 Doc and holtjammy16 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deleted Users Posted April 2, 2015 Report Share Posted April 2, 2015 Magic Mountain lost the rights to Terminator. Loggers used to have a tunnel. Thorpe love weird IPs. Hmm.. (Embedding at timestamps doesn't work, but go to 17 seconds.) TAKE THE TUNNEL - The Ride pluk 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack F Posted April 2, 2015 Report Share Posted April 2, 2015 Wait what?! I'm so confused about this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MachoMachine Posted April 2, 2015 Report Share Posted April 2, 2015 Wait what?! I'm so confused about this. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/sarcasm James Allgood, Celia Mae and slendercat 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pluk Posted April 2, 2015 Report Share Posted April 2, 2015 Both of those tunnels were awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deleted Users Posted April 2, 2015 Report Share Posted April 2, 2015 Both of those tunnels were awesome. Yeah but one has FIRE MachoMachine and Kerfuffle 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack F Posted April 3, 2015 Report Share Posted April 3, 2015 The Season Pass Podcast was talking about The IAC maze and the 2016 maze, where they say that the budget is £30 Million. http://ec.libsyn.com/p/2/1/b/21bd089fc4484a8b/Nicks_ERT_24.mp3?d13a76d516d9dec20c3d276ce028ed5089ab1ce3dae902ea1d06ca8f37d8cd590fe4&c_id=8697232 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian-S Posted April 3, 2015 Report Share Posted April 3, 2015 About £29.9 Million too much, could have spent that on a half decent rollercoaster that would last eons longer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitchada04 Posted April 3, 2015 Report Share Posted April 3, 2015 A £30 million dark ride can last just as long as a coaster! Just look at some of the Disney classics that are now icons like Peter Pan, Haunted Mansion etc.. This country needs a decent dark ride so the people of England can see their potential and how they can be better than coasters as they offer such a different experience! People want fully immersive rides then dark rides are the answer. Thorpe doesn't need another large scale coaster for a few more years, they've got a solid set and grew that set in the space of 10 years! Towers have one more large coaster than Thorpe and did it over 20 years, that's why everyone feels Thorpe should always get new coasters because we're used to it that way. I look forward to Merlin creating something with a huge budget that isn't a coaster as it's something we haven't seen them do. And marketing wise I hope it's similar to Smiler in getting the brand out their. Please be a unique theme created by Merlin then they can get it out to the work like Smiler. Creativity can work! huzzellio 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPJames Posted April 3, 2015 Report Share Posted April 3, 2015 It will all come down to what's its themed around. That will determine the life of the dark ride before it needs a retheme or refurbishment. If it's an IP, I can't see it lasting more than 10years depending on the choice of brand. If it's a good in-brand theme, I can see it lasting for 20-30years or so at the minimum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Project LC Posted April 3, 2015 Report Share Posted April 3, 2015 £30 million orginal creative idea that is a major risk or £30 million dark ride with an IP which will much more likely get a return. I think that thorpe will struggle to convince the market that a dark ride is just as good if not better than a coaster. The swarm may have failed for many reasons but I am quite sure the current market that goes to thorpe would prefer a hyper coaster than a dark ride. I'm sure that opinion would change for many afterwards but they need to be able to convince people to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitchada04 Posted April 3, 2015 Report Share Posted April 3, 2015 IPs really vary. Spiderman at IOA is both an amazing Dark ride technologically speaking and as an IP it is one that will never really die out. Kids will always know about Spiderman. Merlin's tendencies in IPs are buying ones that are nearing the end of their lives presumably because they are so much cheaper. Let's use Smiler for this. Smiler (minus it's delays and technical faults in its first year) is Merlin's perfect investment. The marketing was completely new for a ride in the UK and that very simple but eye catching logo was plastered everywhere with little explanation to begin with. Now it's an IP in its own right with the merchandise being everywhere. You don't just see Smiler jumpers at other theme parks, I've seen a few around where I live when people are shopping etc. It is so well known not just because its got 14 loops but because it is a brand. Cost Merlin hardly anything to produce so more money could be spent on the ride and it's probably made a huge return. If Smiler had been an IP coaster it'd have had a larger bill and would probably have had the same draw so in that sense wouldn't have made much more of a return. All this talk about convincing people to go ride the dark ride, no matter what the theme Merlin's marketing will create something that makes most people want to go see what the hype is about. And lots of people (normal punters included) know about dark rides because of Florida and they are the future in my eyes due to the endless possibilities. Dark rides are expensive, £30 million sounds a lot but if they're going for a large IP you can imagine that won't come cheap and if they go for an old IP they'll just end up spending millions retheming it in a few years. Merlin should take a risk and create an amazing story, a unique brand with a logo that works well and sells. Oh and as for hyper coasters, some of my friends have seen pictures of hyper coasters and go "Oh so it just goes up and down lots of times. No loops or anything?" So whilst they may be good coasters at heart they seemingly just do one thing repetitively in many of the general publics eyes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshC. Posted April 3, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 3, 2015 One thing with IPs that I always think about is how Saw is one of Thorpe's (and Merlin's) 'best' attractions to date, in the sense of it created the biggest buzz and brought in a ton of guests (I'm pretty sure the park reached capacity on several days during the Easter holidays?). With that fact there, it must be very tempting for them to keeping exploring other IPs. As proven with Saw, if they get the right IP, it doesn't matter if the IP is current or nearing the end of its life outside the park, if it's big enough, it will work. Despite Smiler's particular success as a brand, I'd assume investing a large sum of money into an IP + dark ride is seen as 'safer' than the same sum into a totally original concept (and that view probably hasn't been helped by Swarm's so-called failure either). Chuck in the fact that, for this attraction, they want to keep everything as much a secret as physically possible, I'd be very surprised if the park didn't go for an IP for this - it just makes it so much easier to draw people in without saying what the attraction does. Though, as ever, would love to be surprised! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian-S Posted April 3, 2015 Report Share Posted April 3, 2015 Why is Swarm considered a failure? It's a pretty good ride IMHO, could be a tad longer but so could most of the rides at Thorpe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Celia Mae Posted April 3, 2015 Report Share Posted April 3, 2015 It didn't really have the effect intended when it comes to increasing the number of people that go to the park, the number actually dropped considerably the year swarm was opened and it's mostly blamed on swarm being a 'failure' rather than looking at other reasons like rising ticket prices and the like Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pluk Posted April 3, 2015 Report Share Posted April 3, 2015 Why is Swarm considered a failure? It's a pretty good ride IMHO, could be a tad longer but so could most of the rides at Thorpe. It was considered a failure at the time by the park / Merlin because it didn't create the expected uplift in visitors in its opening season. Never mind that it was Olympic year, the weather wasn't consistent, there were mistakes in the marketing, that the preceding seasons had been poor and dissuaded returns and many other things which influenced the gate. Never mind also that it had one of the highest rider approval ratings recorded, showing once people were on it they loved it so word would likely spread and people would be likely to return . The reaction, in terms of gate figure, wasn't instant so it will always be thought of as a failure, and this why we ended up with the crappy backwards seats to give them a gimmick to push and why the unique selling point is now held in higher regard than producing anything good. Just shows what a short term mindset things are operated with, and why there is virtually nil investment on anything other than something new and major (ie marketable) rather than general improvements, which are so desperately required and would deliver long term results. It's all such a shame. Ian-S, JoshC., HermanTheGerman and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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