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Slammer


Artie

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People mention about how Slammer is the last Sky Swat as though it's important. But Thorpe don't advertise it like that at all. Only enthusiasts know it's the only one in the world, and probably are the only ones who care at the moment.

Sure, Merlin have a particularly liking for Firsts and Onlys, but if they're not advertising it, then it means nothing.

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I think Samurai is almost certainly on the way out. Its just so unreliable these days; you can tell it wasn't meant to last the sixteen years that it has. Its meant to be a fair ground ride damn it! I'd be glad to see it go, its not like it runs decent settings either...

 

Slammer on the other hand, well, that's just a massive shame. I'd love for it to last forever, but that surely wont happen. I reckon they'll be seeing how much they can improve the reliability before they start giving it a greater marketing focus. And if after all this work (adding new supports etc.) its still breaking down, then well, I doubt it'll out live Samurai...

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From a park perspective: Slammer costs more to maintain and continually repair as undoubtedly it has been more reliable over its life than Samurai plus it is unique, S&S don't make them anymore so don't supply parts therefore the park have to get parts specially made which takes time and costs more money. Samurai is also more popular, shifts more of a queue, takes up less room and probably costs less to run an hour as it doesn't involve compressing air. It also doesn't have to be shut half way through the day to be checked for cracks etc. Neither ride is perfect, but logically Slammer should go before Samurai (ideally they'll both go and we'll get one reliable good replacement- note it doesn't have to be a flat.)

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I don't want either to go, but I still think that Slammer should stay, it offers a unique experience (something that should be advertised more) and is definitely one of the scariest rides in the UK in the eyes of the general public.

Samurai should be replaced with a brand new Top Scan IMO, but that's never going to happen.

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Why are they stopping half into the day to check it for cracks? If people are willing to go on a ride that has to be checked daily for cracks fair plate to them, on the other hand, if Merlin were to offer S&S a large amount of money why wouldn't they manafacture one more sky swat? Say slammer originally cost £3,000,000 they should offer S&S £5,000,000, if Thorpe listened to the public and scrapped Samurai and got a new, bigger and better sky swat that would be a good resolution.

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But they could resolve the issues and the flaws and make a sky swat 2.0 with the failures from there previous productions as a lesson learned and replace the parts that are faulty and re design them so they last longer, they should just build a better one with more man hours and better parts

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S&S gave up on it, I highly doubt any other company would want to go for a similar design, as using hydraulics instead of air pressure would probably result in even more of an unreliable mess... Or at least it would still have the potential to suffer from the same issues as the original...

 

As always, every year, the best thing for the park to do would be to scrap it and replace it with, well ANYTHING...

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The best option for a sky swat design would be to use a pit so ultimately halving the complexity of the ride

 

Definitely reduces the complexity of the ride, but then means you have to build a ~40ft deep pit to house it, which is expensive and, in many cases, impractical.

 

The sky swat design just never really worked out; it's just one of those things really.  Sure, they could spend a whole lot of money to improve it and create Sky Swat 2.0,  but the concept of it just doesn't really work.  The rides themselves aren't particularly popular either.

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Not sure about anyone else, but I haven't seen any work being done to Slammer recently but seems like they're working on it today! Hopefully they will get it open soon. Also noticed the last time I was there they had the Slammer sign ready to be put up, don't think they bothered to put that up last year when it was open.

 

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(Photo from Themeparkworldwides facebook page)

 

I really don't want Slammer go, but I can see it going as soon as possible and I do understand why. It must cost them a ridiculous amount of money for maintenance, has to close midday for checks and even when it is open it never seems to be popular. Not sure if that's due to it being out of the way, and people not knowing it exists? I don't see why the park don't advertise it as the 'worlds only' or whatever, never even see pictures on facebook when it is open. 

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