Eh, as someone who works in the Media Industry I get what they mean. Advertising is (quite correctly) tightly regulated. Maybe this is a wakeup call to Merlin to be more careful in the future!

There's murmurs that the world first claim was only meant to be used for the name announcement (to grab the attention of people a bit more), and for it to disappear shortly after.  

 

So potentially this is a load of rubbish and the change occurred of Towers' own accord.

And they weren't technically lying. They were talking about fusing fire with the ride, all being one experience. Having 2 flame towers at the top of a woodie that hardly ever work or theming a racer to a fire dragon isn't really fusing the elements? And Wildfire is literally just called Wildfire, no real fire. It's a clever use of word play but I don't think Towers were wrong in what they said if you look deeper into it.

 

Lightning Rod should be the one getting huffy as that nearly did fully fuse wood and fire in real life!

2018 has to be one of the strangest UK theme park years ever - and we're only in January!

12 minutes ago, Mitchada04 said:

And they weren't technically lying. They were talking about fusing fire with the ride, all being one experience. Having 2 flame towers at the top of a woodie that hardly ever work or theming a racer to a fire dragon isn't really fusing the elements? And Wildfire is literally just called Wildfire, no real fire. It's a clever use of word play but I don't think Towers were wrong in what they said if you look deeper into it.

 

Lightning Rod should be the one getting huffy as that nearly did fully fuse wood and fire in real life!

 

Dreamland and Blackpool did it before Towers UK wise though...

3 hours ago, BaronC. said:

There's murmurs that the world first claim was only meant to be used for the name announcement (to grab the attention of people a bit more), and for it to disappear shortly after.  

Sounds awfully convenient, and not in keeping with Merlin's previous efforts with spurious claims.

 

I personally think it's pretty hilarious, good work that geek!

 

3 hours ago, Mitchada04 said:

And they weren't technically lying. They were talking about fusing fire with the ride, all being one experience. Having 2 flame towers at the top of a woodie that hardly ever work or theming a racer to a fire dragon isn't really fusing the elements? And Wildfire is literally just called Wildfire, no real fire. It's a clever use of word play but I don't think Towers were wrong in what they said if you look deeper into it.

 

Lightning Rod should be the one getting huffy as that nearly did fully fuse wood and fire in real life!

Terminator Salvation had proper fire effects on a woodie a decade ago, proper up close feel it on your face fire blasted at you. It is utter BS of a claim.

Alton Towers did not have a "worlds first" as fire has been used on wooden coasters before, therefore I think it is rightful that they have had to revoke the claim.

I guess it depends on how you stretch the definition of 'fused'.  Is having a flamethrower / explosion effect / whatever by the track a fusion of wood and fire?  Towers could say no, especially if Wickerman has effects where it makes it look like the wood is on fire or whatever.  

 

It's a very twisted, wishy-washy, silly and specific claim to make (even worse than Galactica's 'fully dedicated' because we're forcing people to wear VR glasses for a week before making them optional claim), but you could say it's there.

Pic from TowersStreet. 

 

Its a a shame my overriding thought is that it’s gonna produce a lot of pollutants. The Wicker Man’s clearly not a tree hugger.

Well the use of wood as a building material is most likely to make the coaster carbon negative. So even with the pollutants the fire will causes, for the 2 weeks merlin maintains it, sw8 will be far more enviormentally friendly than a steel coaster.

Attraction Images has footage of Wicker Man testing; 

 

 

Jesus that thing is slow towards the end. I know it's in testing and they might still be working with the timings/wheel configurations but I don't think I'll bother with SW8/towers, I'll just go to Icon instead.

Doesn't look very interesting, not very fast at all, although it does seem they have released it slowly from the lift as part of the testing, so expect it will be ever so slightly faster. Still looks disappointing overall though. 

The bits designed by Magic Making look very slow. Quite concerning if this is going to be marketed as a thrill ride.

I'll save my "it's the first test run, stop being silly saying it looks slow" card for Icon. This thing is going to be crap regardless.

Now they dropped the fire marketing crap they could do 'The world's first experience to fuse GCI and boring'

Haha, did wonder how long before they would have to take the video down! 

That bit where it goes through the structure and then sharply up before the banked turn looks like something off Planet Coaster when you move a bend up and forget to smooth the track.

You guys are mean. If this was a playground you'd all be the school bullies.

Video has seemingly been taken down.

 

I watched it, and it looks as I've always expected it to look.  A simple, fun, low key family experience.

8 hours ago, Stuntman707 said:

That bit where it goes through the structure and then sharply up before the banked turn looks like something off Planet Coaster when you move a bend up and forget to smooth the track.

That looks really weird, doesn't it? Like it thinks it's heading into a final break run, but it's actually really early on.

 

Not worth paying too much attention to the speed during testing I know, but even imagining it sped up considerably it still looks like a pretty crap coaster. Spends a lot of time doing not a lot, which is really bad on such a short ride.

Well the video has been removed, what a surprise.

 

The ride does look a little on the slow side during the testing there, however they are probably just experimenting with it currently. 

13 hours ago, JoshuaA said:

Now they dropped the fire marketing crap they could do 'The world's first experience to fuse GCI and boring'

 

Even THAT'S not a world's first though...

 

It's such a shame that Towers/Merlin marketing seem unable to market things appropriately... If this didn't have the Wickerman nonsense and some strange Pirate theme we'd not bat an eyelid on it being slow (blah blah testing is always slow blah)...

Video had to be removed as it revealed the washing machine element, FYI.

On 29/01/2018 at 2:38 PM, MattyMoo said:

Video had to be removed as it revealed the washing machine element, FYI.

Haha, I actually thought the Smiler could have pulled that off! Have some strobes, illusions and it would have made a cool marmiliser type element and would have definitely been a unique ride. Almost like a flat ride built into a rollercoaster.