Wicker Man

[Benin]

I wonder how much of that was down to the ground survey team getting it completely wrong?

[MattyMoo]

I do remember the groundworkers being completely shocked when I told them that the countdown website to a March 2013 opening had gone live.

[pluk]

I want to be excited for it, but can't find anything much to be excited about.

 

My biggest concern is that this half arsed effort will decrease further the chances of the UK getting a decent woodie if it is seen by the industry as a flop.

[Coaster]

Is this still a thing?

 

I joke, but it just seems like such an unambitious coaster and a pre-show won't change that.  A new woodie in the UK needed to be amazing and impressive and whilst SW8 looks good enough, it doesn't look spectacular.

 

On the plus side though, at least it's moving away from the "world's first" gimmicky rubbish - so a possible step in the right direction.

[Stuntman707]

I still think that it's going to have some kind of launched lift hill, probably LIM. Even a split lift, It's odd how it changes gradient and it's mostly a very gentle slope. Dollywood has the world's first launched woodie so if it is launched, Towers still have little option but to call it a World Class ride. 

Also some have mentioned by the very steep banking that it's definitely going to have some speed which I reckon a launch would assist with.

[CharlieN]

New signage up on site, courtesy of ThemeparkWorldwide. 

[JoshC.]

The Pagan-esque symbols are also carved into the wood either of the sign. 

 

I think it's fair to say that those symbols could be deciphered to say 'Be Chosen' (look in particular at the same symbol where an 'e' would be).  The 3 symbols on the sign itself could be 'SW8', especially as the first symbol matches the 's' in 'Be Chosen'.

 

Potentially something to look out for during the marketing campaign.  Not unheard of for Towers to be interactive and get people to work out clues (the latter part of Smiler's advertising for example).

[MattyMoo]

The SW8 fire branding just makes me hungry for a Burger King.

[Whatever]

Despite there being signs all around the site, as well as it being clearly visible from several places, SW8 didn't seem to draw much interest from people when I was at Towers yesterday.

Friends thought it was just scaffolding (towers doesn't need any more unnecessary scaffolding believe you me!!!)

After explaining to my peers that it was in fact a wooden rollercoaster in construction, and yes, those are actually the supports, they thought it was a bit old fashioned. 

One friend was just sorely disappointed that there was no longer a log flume

 

[JoshuaA]

I do think The Towers should try and up their game with the advertising campaign.

The Smiler's campaign I thought was generally brilliant, and it actually got me hyped up for the new addition.

The backstory videos, the game, and the pictures on the website really built up anticipation for the ride.

 

On re-watch of the POV I think this could decent if it has a launch, though we'll have to wait and see..

But I have to say that I'm much more hyped for the great looking Mack Launch down at Blackpool over this, so I wouldn't be surprised if this thing hides in Icon's shadow..

Though this will be a good addition for the park I guess, and I hope this will be work out for Merlin so we see more GCI's across the parks.

[yeah]

This is getting interesting now.

 

Alton Towers released this video earlier today, and ignoring the awful Elliot Crawford, it looks like it could contain some clues to this ride.

Here's a spreadsheet put together by someone in the comments containing all of the "clues" in this video, however, some are quite vague: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aN-F-FmjYCSdEAfrUg_gzx9K0tX3Ak6S0QQUWQJn3G8/edit?pageId=108797669237932663241#gid=0

 

The static in the outro translates to Be Chosen, http://imgur.com/a/h9dVL and people have also been able to decipher all of the symbols Towers have been using, the only letter missing are X, Y and Z. One thing the commenter above did miss, is the bizarre picture of someone standing in some bushes. There could also be a code of some sort in the bookcase before Jules walks past it.

[Benin]

Or it's all just Towers putting in FAKE CLUES to get the clearly bored enthusiasts excited about this. SAD!

[JoshC.]

48 minutes ago, Benin said:

Or it's all just Towers putting in FAKE CLUES to get the clearly bored enthusiasts excited about this. SAD!

To be fair, it works.  Plus it is a good amount of effort creating a whole alphabet of 'ruins' and chucking in loads of random 'weird' things in the video that'll be noticed by enthusiasts watching it 100s of times.  It's simple, will mean next to nothing about the ride (I expect 'Be Chosen' will be a marketing slogan and that's it), but slowly gets people talking.

 

I'm just disappointed they didn't go for a proper code breaking thing, and instead opted for the much easier, quick to crack translation method. 

[yeah]

2 hours ago, Benin said:

Or it's all just Towers putting in FAKE CLUES to get the clearly bored enthusiasts excited about this. SAD!

I'll wait til the next one to judge whether they fake or what they mean.

[MattyMoo]

16 hours ago, Whatever said:

Despite there being signs all around the site, as well as it being clearly visible from several places, SW8 didn't seem to draw much interest from people when I was at Towers yesterday.

Friends thought it was just scaffolding (towers doesn't need any more unnecessary scaffolding believe you me!!!)

After explaining to my peers that it was in fact a wooden rollercoaster in construction, and yes, those are actually the supports, they thought it was a bit old fashioned. 

One friend was just sorely disappointed that there was no longer a log flume

It's beyond me why they don't say "rollercoaster" anywhere in the advertising and signage around the site.

[L7123456]

 

A trademark for the Wicker Man has been filed and this image has appeared with it. This pretty much confirms the theme for SW8.

 

 

[pluk]

While this is an odd and for me disappointing theme, it does throw up an exciting prospect.

 

FIRE!

 

Surely you can't do Wicker Man without a significant amount of fire? Terminator Salvation taught me fire in a woodie is a wonderful thing. I'm hoping for the preshow being something like backdraft or that temple thing at PortAventura, good and spectacular. Now that might be something that could salvage an otherwise lackluster looking coaster.

[JoshC.]

It's a shame that in this day and age it's easy enough for enthusiasts with enough time on their hands can dig through trademark websites to find out names / logos in advance..  Spoils the fun a bit more... Then again we've known this name since before Flume was fully dismantled so I guess there's that...

 

Logo looks nice, prospect of fire is good.  Somewhat concerned that a Th13teen style over-hyped marketing campaign is coming though.

[MattyMoo]

Wonder what happened to that demolition worker who posted on Twitter that the ride was called "Wickerman" all those moons ago  Secrecy contract? What contract? 

[CharlieN]

2 hours ago, pluk said:

Surely you can't do Wicker Man without a significant amount of fire? Terminator Salvation taught me fire in a woodie is a wonderful thing. I'm hoping for the preshow being something like backdraft or that temple thing at PortAventura, good and spectacular. Now that might be something that could salvage an otherwise lackluster looking coaster.

Absolutely. A screen based pre show would do nothing but disappoint me. (just like #whatsintheshed seems to). A truly spectacular pre show with pyrotechnics and effects could be the saving grace of this ride - at least I can hope.

[Coaster]

Looks like yet another gloomy, overcast theme - hardly what the park needs.  Fire sounds good though!

[Marhelorpe]

For what is clearly going to be a family coaster, that is a very bizarre decision to theme it on yet again another dark and gloomy IP, just in case we haven't seen it enough with Merlin as a whole these last 7 years with almost all new investments made at their parks. All I can hope for now is that this isn't over-hyped and underdelivered like Thirteen was at the time with it's ludicrous marketing campaign.

As for what is hopefully plenty of fire effects, it might sound nice and promising, but given the track record of many other effects across Merlin breaking within a year and some of which are never fixed again, I ain't building any expectations for a flawless and consistent pyrotechnic show.

Really was hoping more than anything they were going to theme this with the rest of Mutiny Bay.

[Cian]

The icon and logo look great! The name on the other hand..

[Mark9]

Now that it's out there, I can finally say how frustrating it is that Merlin, yet again have gone down the IP route but this time to a film that either was a financial bomb on its remake or a film that most guests that visit the park will have never seen. It's like they decided on a wooden coaster and it was either the Wicker Man or the film Noah because they both feature wood at some point.

 

Thats if it even relates to the film, but then why theme it on the Wicker Man if you don't plan to relate it to the feature in some way. 

 

Argh.

[JoshC.]

I'd be very surprised if this does have links with the film.  I can't think of a time when Merlin has done an IP and not used the logo of that IP.  Plus there's the fact the film is called 'The Wicker Man', as opposed to just 'Wicker Man'.  And I have just enough faith in Merlin to think they wouldn't theme a family coaster around a dead flop of an old horror IP.  

 

The issue at the moment for me comes down to whether people will see 'Wicker Man' and instantly think of the films, the general idea of a burning wooden thing or what.  And the fact it still feels a bit too much like they haven't learnt from Th13teen.

 

If they wanted to go down the fire and wood route, I'm surprised they didn't go for a pirate theme.  It practically sets itself up and could have been hilarious.