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Next Roller Coaster


Tom Stoker

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On Monday, March 27, 2017 at 9:56 PM, 'Airtime Falcon' said:

I think gimmicks work well granted the actual gimmick makes the coaster a great coaster.

 

For example, Shambhala (yes I know, I can't go 10 seconds without bringing this up) was known as Europes highest roller coaster (tallest technically). And as far as I'm concerned, there aren't really any issues with the gimmick. The height is one of the best aspects of the coaster.

 

On the other hand, a gimmick such as "the worlds first 14 looping roller coaster" doesn't necessarily make the coaster a great coaster, it's simply just numbers and maybe aesthetics. I personally enjoy the smiler but I have heard of some people to dislike it.

 

But knowing Thorpe Park, they are without a doubt going to attempt a gimmick. Let's just hope it's a good one :good:

 

Tallest/fastest claims are not gimmicks in my book, they are bona-fide records. Even 'most inversions' is a legitimate claim. There's nothing wrong with any of that.

 

But with most legitimate records out of reach we end up with the gimmicks consisting of spurious world's firsts for generally unremarkable elements, or unquantifiable claims of 'scariest' or 'most intense' which are just PR puff. These are the ones I have problems with, where the shoehorning of some nonsense ends up detracting from delivering a solid attraction around it. Where marketing takes over from genuine creativity as the driving force of a project.

 

If Thorpe are going to reach for a legitimate record I'd love them to go for the world's longest coaster, utilising the new island and going on around the perimeter. I'm sure it's doable on the site, never going to happen though!

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On 4/29/2017 at 6:14 PM, BruceyBruce said:

I don't like that idea at all! Those would be totally out of place at Thorpe Park.

 

To be honest - I don't think anything could be 'out of place' for Thorpe, its so  mish-mashy as it is!

 

 I think you UK could do with a new generation woodie - and Thorpe is one of the best sites due to planning restrictions and space! 

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21 hours ago, BruceyBruce said:

I don't like that idea at all! Those would be totally out of place at Thorpe Park.

 

I don't even think Thorpe has a strong enough image for anything to be out of place. It's a chaotic blur of themes and rides and blue fences and warehouses and pop music.

 

Just intrigued though, what do you think would be a good fit for the park?

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I think the best choice would be a thrilling family coaster focusing on airtime around loggers leap. A woodie wouldn't make sense as one is opening at Alton next year. 

They might want to take on Blackpool with a multilaunch but then again that would also be a reason not to go with one. 

I'd love to see a RMC T-Rex replace Colossus but I highly doubt that would happen anytime soon.

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On 4/30/2017 at 3:40 PM, Project LC said:

I think the best choice would be a thrilling family coaster focusing on airtime around loggers leap. A woodie wouldn't make sense as one is opening at Alton next year. 

They might want to take on Blackpool with a multilaunch but then again that would also be a reason not to go with one. 

I'd love to see a RMC T-Rex replace Colossus but I highly doubt that would happen anytime soon.

 

Alton will be restricted by height with their woodie - So I'm imagining something like Mystic Timbers or Invadr.

Thorpe on the other hand could build a much taller woodie - and perhaps one with an inversion (RMC) Also Altons I think is going to be a GCI - Other makes such as Gravity group and RMC give different rides. 

 

Also there are many parks especially in America that have multiple woodies in the same park, which all ride differently and compliment each other - so Alton & Thorpe both having a woodie really would not be flooding the market! 

 

In a way I also wish Chessington would get a small Gravity group model too 

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24 minutes ago, mrmonkey said:

Also there are many parks especially in America that have multiple woodies in the same park, which all ride differently and compliment each other - so Alton & Thorpe both having a woodie really would not be flooding the market!

You have to consider it from Merlins point of view. They spend millions on a ride where its USP is being made of wood. Opening another ride with the same USP or a similar superior one like an RMC would mean Thorpe ends up stealing customers from Alton.

SW8 wouldn't boost visitor numbers as much as it could have without competition and so it would be considered a poor use of funds.

While Thorpe may get a woodie at some point I highly doubt it will be any time soon.

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^Depends on how Towers sell SW8 though.  It's possible the US for it won't be 'it's made of wood', they could go down a completely different route and just gloss over the wood fact.  If that's the case then other UK parks could easily go for woof and not steal Towers' thunder. 

 

I get what you're saying though.  And given the lack of new wood in the UK, focusing on the fact SW8 is a woodie would be the easiest, and perhaps most sensible, way forward.  But who knows with Towers...

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Also I'm thinking in terms of Thorpe opening a Woodie in 2020 or 2021 - NOT next year competing with SW8 - a couple of years is fine for a new ride to 'not compete' or overshadow another parks attraction! 

 

Also It's all down to marketing - 2 different rides could have very contrasting images and marketing campaigns - And thats down to Merlin - in fact thats what Merlin are good at - marketing. 

 

Also think of RITA (2005) AND STEALTH (2006) very similar style and theme of ride - within a year of each other! 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I hope that the new coaster will be a B&M or a kind of Intamin family coaster. I predict that the net new coaster at Thorpe will open 2019/2020, cause I've heard people saying that Derren Brown's ghost train cost as much as a giga.By the way, can someone tell me what LC and WC mean? Cause the Swarm was codenamed LC 12 and DBGT WC 16. I presume its similar to Alton's Secret Weapon series.

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5 minutes ago, A.T.I said:

I hope that the new coaster will be a B&M or a kind of Intamin family coaster. I predict that the net new coaster at Thorpe will open 2019/2020, cause I've heard people saying that Derren Brown's ghost train cost as much as a giga.By the way, can someone tell me what LC and WC mean? Cause the Swarm was codenamed LC 12 and DBGT WC 16. I presume its similar to Alton's Secret Weapon series.

LC was for large coaster (I believe) and WC was white chapel. Saw had the code name Dylan. Unlike Alton towers Thorpe's are quite random.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Seeing as it seems to be a road on a fancy looking bridge probably the road to 2020. 

What it tells me is they seem to have switched to a 4 year investment cycle. Hopefully it also means bigger budgets but with Ghost trains questionable performance I doubt Merlin will be willing to put huge sums of money like that into singular projects again.

 

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