All Activity

2020.

Whatever happened to DW having an indigenous tourist experience?

Dreamworld have revealed this morning that their former Corroboree is being rebranded into WILD with Australian Geographic. https://www.dreamworld.com.au/our-worlds/wild-with-australian-geographic/ You’ll find the heart of Australia here in WILD with Australian Geographic, where native animals and natural landscapes come alive. We’ve proudly partnered with Australian Geographic to celebrate conservation, education, and the animals that make Australia unique. The former theatre is also returning with a new cinematic experience by Australian Geographic called 'Our Country'. It's great to see this area of the park getting some love and hopefully it leads to more refurbishments and improvements. They have been improved Goldie's exhibit recently and the addition of the new Bilby house a couple years ago were great. I know recently the damaged netting over the former aviary has been removed, so giving areas like this some attention to improve the animal and guest experience would be great to see.

I think there's a middle ground. Let's take stock: It is clear from what is happening elsewhere that long-term viability for hydraulic launches just isn't there as more of them have long-downtimes or close altogether It is unlikely they would engage with a third party company for retrofit after TTD We know intamin's retrofit is expensive It may not be in the short term budget there may not be a build slot they can't afford to have another 'scooby' situation where it's down for multiple years. Scoob is out of sight, but Superman smacks you in the front gate. Cobble together a fix that buys you time - keep it running until the build slot is reached So I think an intamin-provided LSM retro is on the cards, but won't be ready for a while. Superman is on an unplanned downtime - so they just need to keep it going a little longer and the parts they've ordered are intended to do just that - buy time - rather than signify any commitment from the park to maintain the hydraulic launch on an ongoing basis.

That isn't the place I'm talking about. The Gold Coast Kart club was a proper/official racing track, not a place you could rock up to and pay to have a turn.

No it didn’t. It closed because the Gold Coast City Council is turning the track into a tip. They didn’t renew the lease.

On the one hand, the calibre of some of the shows they list in their projects is high, and therefore promising, but on the other, the website is absolute dogshit and there's very little information about the work they actually did on those shows. Yeah they also produced shows for Sunway lagoon. Many of their productions are middle east and asia. Looking closely, the 'lion king' show they feature doesn't look like it's Disney... I think there's a balance to be had here - PASS did the audience participation very well. It introduced the show slowly, allowing stragglers to take their seats while some of the character building was done. For those selected, it was a special experience (I was picked in 1994), but additionally it gave the illusion of the audience plant 'Rodney' being 'just another guy'. Once chosen though, the 'recruits' were briefed by 'Proctor' quietly while 'Harris' continued to play to the crowd with further exposition. HWSD lets this down because it drags on too long. The 'director' first has to choose everyone, and then the crowd sits around while those people make their way to the filming spots and react for the camera, all happening live. it's too slow, especially after the show already kicked off with high energy vehicle action. It's the innovator vs. the imitator. ETA: This is one of their shows out of China - and it's very HWSD-esque. Still donuts, still drifting, but promising with the inclusion of other stunts too.

Anime is decently popular, about as much as it is in America BUT unless it's something like 'Pokemon' it's not going to fill up the family and kids seats, like the 'Shrek' franchise would. Things like 'Attack on Titan' or 'One Piece' might have some mainstream appeal but not enough to boost ticket sales with the exception of enthusiasts. Another thing you've got to remember is the Gold Coast is a cultural wasteland for anything ~niche~. I wear an anime shirt in Melbourne I get people occasionally complimenting or recognizing my shirt, maybe a nod or a smile. I wear an anime shirt on the Gold Coast and people laugh or call me a "nerd" or "loser" or "weirdo" or "freak". The Gold Coast isn't representative of Australian tastes and Movie World isn't about to shell out a bunch of dollarydoos to cater to their "nerd/loser/weirdo/freak" demographic. Maybe a merch tie-in might happen but beyond that it's not gonna happen. tl:dr - some Australians like anime lots but not enough for any Gold Coast park to invest in it beyond something minimal or low-risk.

Out of curiosity. With the Roxy Theater how popular is well anime in Australia? The reason why is in case Village Roadshow takes a page from Universal, and adds a anime film in the Roxy Theater for their events?

My understanding is HSD is due to close in October with the new show starting by the end of the year.

It's pretty well land locked, so there isn't a lot of point in replacing useable track vs conversions to something else. It's not really a super rare launch system. It just uses hydraulic pumps and nitrogen filled accumulators to drive a series of hydraulic motors that spin the drum winch the cables attach too. The problem is when it's not an off the shelf part readily available, so even the manufactures have had to produce overhaul/replacement kits for reconditioning/repairing components right from when the ride was developed. Nobody but the manufacturers supply critical components for ANY of the rides. Even if the component was available locally from another supplier, it's just not how it's done and all responsibility for maintaining compliance/quality rests with the ride manufacturer. The biggest problems in recent years have been problems with the diaphragms sealing internally within the accumulators and keeping the pressure balanced, plus prior to that the chiller system that used hydraulic fluid cycles back through to cool down. Those things were really old and needed replacement years ago. Back when they actually gave a damn about launch cycles, on really hot summers days it was possible to cycle the cars too fast that they couldn't keep the hydraulic oil operating temps under control and the ride used to go into alarm because of it. The only thing that would feel similar to a hydraulic launch would be air. It has the same almost instant acceleration you don't get with electro magnets.

The old buildings behind HSD were actually carpenters sheds originally. Nothing to do with the services for the fireball or anything air related were out there. LPG storage vessel is against the fence further forward towards the gate, while the buildings remaining towards the grass hill behind/beside the new building they put up, cannot be removed easily. There is an energex feeder/substation (one of three in the park) there, while next door is a room full of services cabinets for stepping down and distributing power from the feeder. You don't actually own the substation and it's not something you just pickup and move with how integrated transmission lines are running to other services underground. Those two small buildings stayed right where they were. HSD guys used the carport for tyre related stuff for awhile, the one the superman float end up parked in permanently, but by large part, they have had a workshop tied to the back of house area for ages. It's directly behind the left corner of the set where the "parking garage" is. The reason why you used to see a HSD car frequently parked out the back was because the park took one of the black evo's and used it as a lead vehicle (police car) for the parades for a long time. They originally had a deal with Mitsubishi Australia, the cars were never plated with compliance plates, just build tags, they were never to be registered. They sold a bunch of the back lot cars off about... I want to say 7ish years ago. 3 of the evo's went as a package, but they also sold a few others like the remaining caprice from the police academy stunt show.

I wouldn’t put it past MW to get a final summer holiday out of HSD2 before closing the show to redo it(whether it’s a complete makeover or minor overhaul) to leave the new show as the big new addition they market for next year and save SDSC as the new thing for these summer school holidays.

The good part about Mad Max is you don't have to completely demolish and rebuild the set ala Police Academy -> Hollywood Stunt Driver. You can keep the shells of the buildings but make them look abandoned and dusty to fit the Mad Max theme. But yeah, I feel that HSD3 is more likely unfortunately with a similar or identical set, hopefully the stunts make up for it.

My gut feel is this will be the case (or similar vibes with a different name). I assume they’ll have this new show ready for the Christmas holidays and if they were to change the theme of the show dramatically (ie Mad Max) that would require a full set rebuild. When the show changed from Police Academy to the original HSD it took 9 months. We are now less than 4 months away from Christmas and a rebuild isn’t going to happen im that time. I’d hope for some changes to the set, but nothing overall significant.

LSM conversion wouldn't be too hard. New trains, have the lsm's go vertical on the top hat (which they can do now) solves the issue about launch track distance. However, IMO they should just recognise its at EOL and replace rather than flog the horse.

I don't mind it if everyone in the audience takes part but I find individual audience participation only entertaining for the participant and the family/friends of the participant.

That’s what they’re telling us …. They’ve bullshitted before in the past.

I personally wouldn't mind a "Hollywood Stunt Driver 3" if they don't cheap out on it and do stunts as good if not better then HSD1, Include better audience participation that's more than a 5 second video at the end of the show and if they can really change up that script to be less corny, actually write some decent jokes and slapstick and make the story mildly engaging at a minium.

Seeing the houses at HHN. I wonder if anyone prefers FNAF or Terrifier or both as houses for Fright Nights?

Their website lists projects from both Universal and Disney (Waterworld + Lion King) so I have hope in them, from the sounds of things it should be better than what Showtime FMX have done as they're more specified toward theme park specific shows rather than just stunt shows. Just hope Village give them a large enough budget rather than cheapening out (which, unfortunately, would be expected nowdays). Please please please be a Mad Max show, not "Hollywood Stunt Driver 3" although from the description it sounds like that might be the case. At least there is a varied amount of stunts it seems (it mentions multiple things such as highfalls and motorbike riding ) rather than just cars drifting around the whole show and nothing else.

I'm quite aware. The new Showtime is French. Either way, you still end up with a Showtime show.

It's Showtime Entertainment Production group, not Showtime FMX. Completely different companies. MW are changing from this: https://www.showtimefmx.com/ to this: https://www.sepproduction.com/projects/

I think you might need to read more than just the parts you want to read. It patently is Showtime.

The era of donuts is over!