matty_o_911

For university at the Gold Coast there is primarily Bond University and also the GC campus of Griffith University. Plus it is only about an hour away from Brisbane where there are numerous Universities. But yeah I love the Gold Coast too - though I don't think I'd ever like to live there myself - mainly because it isn't a big enough city and I'm not really a 'beach' person.

I personally count observation towers and so forth when I think of tallest buildings, but that list merely was showing Q1 in relation to actual skyscrapers used for either commercial or residential functions. So sure there are plenty of other things taller than Q1 and by using that post I was never suggesting that Q1 was the 20th tallest structure in the world - I was only merely using those particular parameters in a patriotic way so that as Australians we can be proud to finally have a building tall enough to compare with some of the world's most famous tall buildings in the world. It was only a few weeks that I got to have a reasonable look at this amazing building close from Surfers since the last time I had actually been in the Gold Coast before that was several years ago when Q1 was merely a hole in the ground. However I do always like to go on the Eastern side of the Giant Drop at Dreamworld so that I can see how this dominates the skyline, though soon to be joined by some great looking tall buildings which are under construction or soon to be. And I'll admit too that I'm also a fan of skyscrapers/architecture etc. (Makes me wonder though why I'm studying law ) I even went for a nice two hour walk the other day around Brisbane's CBD admiring some of the nice buildings like Riparian and my favourite - the State Law Building (aka Gotham City, or the Batman Building).

I regards to Q1 - which is an absolutely beautiful building - I found this list of the worlds tallest skyscrapers. I believe this list excludes observation towers et al such as CN Tower in Toronto or Centrepoint (or whatever it is known as these days) in Sydney. Of course there is argument as to whether or not spires or masts count on building, but nevertheless, here is a recent list in which Q1 comes in at 20th spot. Tallest Buildings in the World-completed or topped out # Building City Country (ft) (m) floors year 1 Taipei 101 Taipei Taiwan 1,671 509 101 2004 m 2 Petronas Tower 1 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia 1,483 452 88 1998 o 3 Petronas Tower 2 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia 1,483 452 88 1998 o 4 Sears Tower Chicago USA 1,450 442 108 1974 o 5 Jin Mao Building Shanghai China 1,380 421 88 1998 m 6 Two International Finance Center Hong Kong China 1,362 415 88 2003 o 7 CITIC Plaza Guangzhou China 1,283 391 80 1997 o 8 Shun Hing Square Shenzhen China 1,260 384 69 1996 o 9 Empire State Building New York USA 1,250 381 102 1931 o 10 Central Plaza Hong Kong China 1,227 374 78 1992 o 11 Bank of China Tower Hong Kong China 1,205 367 72 1990 o 12 Emirates Office Tower Dubai UAE 1,163 355 54 2000 o 13 Tunex Sky Tower Kaohsiung Taiwan 1,140 348 85 1997 m 14 Aon Center Chicago USA 1,136 346 83 1973 o 15 The Center Hong Kong China 1,135 346 73 1998 o 16 John Hancock Center Chicago USA 1,127 344 100 1969 m 17 Shimao International Plaza Shanghai China 1,093 333 60 UC2005 o 18 Wuhan International Securities Building Wuhan China 1,087 331 68 UC2005 m 19 Ryugyong Hotel Pyongyang North Korea 1,083 330 105 1992 u 20 Q1 Gold Coast Australia 1,058 323 78 UC2005 r 21 Burj Al Arab Dubai UAE 1,053 321 60 1999 h 22 Nina Tower 1 Hong Kong China 1,046 319 80 UC2005 o 23 Chrysler Building New York USA 1,046 319 77 1930 o 24 Bank of America Plaza Atlanta USA 1,023 312 55 1992 o 25 US Bank Tower Los Angeles USA 1,018 310 73 1989 o 26 Menara Tekekom Kuala Lumpur Malaysia 1,017 310 55 2001 o 27 Emirates Towers Hotel Dubai UAE 1,014 309 56 2000 h 28 AT & T Corporate Center Chicago USA 1,007 307 60 1989 o 29 JP MorganChase Tower Houston USA 1,002 305 75 1982 o 30 Baiyoke Tower II Bangkok Thailand 997 304 85 1997 o 31 Two Prudential Plaza Chicago USA 995 303 64 1990 o 32 Kingdom Centre Riyadh Saudi Arabia 992 302 41 2002 o 33 First Canadian Place Toronto Canada 978 298 72 1976 o 34 Eureka Tower Melbourne Australia 975 297 91 UC2006 r As for taller buildings in Sydney - I don't think so and I'm not sure whether or not Centrepoint reaches higher than Q1. However and correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that Sydney may have hight limits imposed near the hight of Centrepoint Tower because if buildings were to be higher than it, it would become less of a visible landmark and be rendered useless as an observation tower if towers of the calibur of Q1 or Eureka in Melbourne were built in the Sydney CBD.

If it is opening on Boxing Day then I can only hope that I come back to Brisbane for some family gathering for which I can promptly sneak away from and catch a train to the Gold Coast. My family will probably not like me for skipping Christmas gatherings to ride a roller-coaster, but Superman will be worth it, lol.

Isn't there some room between Lethal Weapon and Wild West Falls, behind the Scooby Doo and Maverick buildings? Perhaps they could extend the path from the viewing area on Wild West there. Perhaps they could also extend the area past the Batman ride and fill in the pond/lake/dam or whatever it is. I'd really like for a Batman/Gotham City themed area. But further than that, my suggestion is just to demolish the film studios. I mean, they don't exactly make much in the way of 'big' films there. The only recent 'Hollywood' movies made there to my recollection were House of Wax, Peter Pan and Scooby Doo (and considering the sequel was filmed in America, does this mean that the Gold Coast studios were not up to standard?) and plus they are all films that probably could have been done without. So my suggestion - get rid of the studios. Afterall, major films made in Australia are done in Sydney at Fox Studios.

Well, I went on it today and despite my initial complaints, I actually really enjoyed it (enough to make me go on it twice - though also possibly because Movie World today was the BUSIEST I have ever seen it in my entire life. Wild West Fall's queue stretched almost back to the initial entry point!) Anyway - to Shrek. I thought the preshow part was extremely well done - the theming was excellent and in general it was almost as entertaining as the movie itself with plenty of reasonably good jokes. The movie itself looked extremely good and was very entertaining - and the effects - eg. air, water, seat-movement - all worked quite well with the movie and the audience seemed to love it. I definately recommend this attraction - and from visiting both parks today Movie World currently has the uperhand over Dreamworld and will continue to do so for quite a while. As I said Movie World (and Dreamworld too) was packed beyond anything I have seen before and with the addition of Superman, this park is no doubt going to be doing extremely well financially. Favourite line from Shrek pre-show: "Welcome to Duloc, the happiest totalitarian dictatorship on Earth!"

I was at Movie World today and no notable exterior changes that I could see have been made yet.

I don't really want to see the Roxy Theatre facade changed anyway - it would look really strange if it didn't match the rest of Main Street. I did however like the way they had it themed for Marvin though - that looked quite good but I can't really think of something like that they could do for Shrek.

But then again it might just be because the computer came from Griffith University. Being a Griffith student myself, it wouldn't surprise me too much to hear that something wasn't the best quality, lol.

Generally it is the game. Even on the fastest computer, a large sized park would run very slow. The game was poorly designed for being able to run heavily-scenery orientated parks.

Are the water jets only turned on at particular times of day or at the turn of the hour or something because the last time I was at Dreamworld it was the first time I had ever seen them operating (and made the ride look so much better) and this was just on midday, but by the time I got onto the ride they had stopped and I didn't see them going again (I was so dissapointed, I wanted to get wet).

Yes I know this and it makes complete sense - however I still think Movie World should try and strengthen relationships with our smaller niche group. It doesn't take much effort on their behalf - they easily could have released online artists conception images of the ride and/or simulated videos such as what many of the US parks do on their official sites. I'm not blaming anyone for lack of coverage because I personally think that the coverage offered on this site as well as others has been extremely good. My main point I guess was that Movie World shouldn't have waited until the Shrek media day to invite photos being taken from inside the show building and could easily have in the last few months allowed people like yourself directly onto the construction site and within the building itself to take photos. I can understand that Movie World wants to keep an element of surprise - but I'm just impatient and can't wait that long, lol. I just feel that Movie World needs to acknowledge that it has loyal and avid fans out there that are very interested in what they are doing. It was clear earlier in the year with the banning of photos online that Movie World doesn't really care all that much for us.

Wow great update. Just wondering, will Movie World be permitting photo updates to continue of the progress within the building and theming etc, or will they be wanting to keep it all secret until opening? I personally don't want to wait until December to see inside the building and would think it would be a good idea for Movie World to allow all of us devoted fans to follow the progress of the ride and also give us a chance to have a first hand look into the process of creating something like this. I must admit though that I thought it was a bit unfair for Movie World to let the news channels broadcast images the other night from within the show building and also show pictures of the trains before any pictures like that have showed up on websites like this one. Movie World should be more generous to its avid enthusiasts (a webcam showing construction would have been nice).

Over the shoulder restraints I think. Damn, I was hoping for lapbars. They were covered in a plastic sheet, but from the quick shot they showed of them they seemed yellowish in colouring and the restraints I think looked red. I could be wrong though, I was caught by surprise of the site of them. They do nevertheless look really good, and they have a pointy looking front end - though I was expecting to see the Superman logo there but I couldn't see it on the front.

Both Channel Seven and Ten (not sure about Nine) showed some stuff about the opening of Shrek today and they also took the chance to show off Superman. Channel Seven by far had the most stuff on Superman, showing the trains (which look different than I imagined) and also a curve in the inside track within the building. They also showed a nice view looking along the launch track looking from within the show building outside. I am so glad I was watching the news tonight!

I've noticed that Movie World has done an update of their site for Shrek finally changing the Scooby theming that has been there since that ride opened, including a video preview (which I have since discovered to merely be the TV ad) as well as information about the story and how 4D works.

My comment about the Scooby Doo ride was not in relation to anything you, MickeyD, said about the ride but rather in response to the first post in this thread by Midge. I obviously should have used quotes in my post but it takes too much effort and I couldn't be bothered. And my apologies if I did seem to misinterpret your post, however that was how I interpreted some of it at the time (mind you I had just woken up so my brain might not have been functioning correctly yet.)

Just in regards to what you said were your ideas for the Batman ride. How can you claim that you 'came up with the idea' for the Wayne Manor and library interior. This ride was inspired by the movie and as we all know, the batcave lies deep below Wayne Manor. Now that means that with any ride relating to Batman, it would just be common sense to theme the entrance to Wayne Manor and then a library interior with a rotating bookshelf. I'm quite sure had they not seen your plans for Batman, they still would have created the Wayne Manor entrance because it just sense for the theme of the ride. I also find it hard to believe that you can claim to have given them the idea to include a Batman ride when at the time, I think Batman Returns would have been released and also between Batman Forever - so at this time this was a very successful film franchise and as such Movie World would logically want to take advantage of that, so it would have nothing to do with your idea to include Batman. The other thing I was wondering was whether the original Batman simulator movie was made specifically for WBMW?? Because if this sort of ride was already in place somewhere else and Movie World was just borrowing using it, then you have even less claim for giving them the idea. I'm not saying that they didn't take any notice of your ideas, because since you were an employee I'm sure they'd take notice. But I hardly think they steal ideas from the little man, especially when those ideas that the 'little man' made were based on ideas from 'THEIR' movies and therefore not entirely original anyway. So what you were doing is producing ideas from a Warner Bros idea (Batman movie, design, etc) that already existed. Therefore I doubt Movie World is obligated to you in anyway, because you were using their copyrighted ideas to further your own ends and why should they have to pay you or give you any credit for ideas that were theirs. And in regards the first post - I don't know how you could expect to have given Movie World the idea for Scooby Doo several years before the movie was released. Because if you have seen the Scooby Doo movie made here in Australia, you would now that an important scene in the film revolves around a ride which bears a stricking resemblance to the Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster. It is therefore clear the Movie World based the idea for this ride on the movie that was made right next door rather than what your friend sent in an email.

Early morning, about 11 o'clock. Left Dreamworld after 12 to go to Movie World so I don't know what the queue was like later in the day.

The second hill after the overbank is in and really looks quite amazing and appears as though it will provide for a great 'head-chopper' effect as it goes underneath the first hill. But there is only straight track leading to the brake run left in the carpark so the track is almost finished. Also the turn at the base of the second hill looks interesting as it drops and flattens out while over the building under the top hat and then drops again as it drops down to the level of the first banked turn after the top hat. This ride absolutely surpasses my original expectations and I really look forward to riding this absolutely stunning ride.

Well I was at Dreamworld today to check out Wiggle's World but unfortunately the wait for the Big Red Car was about an hour and there was no way I would waste an hour to go on a ride with a top speed of about 2km/h so I decided to give it a miss. But Wiggle's World definately brightens up that section of the park.

In some Superman related news, the Warner Roadshow Studios on the Gold Coast will be getting some work out of the new Superman movie. I think this is mainly just for miniatures for visual effects, but nevertheless I think it would be really good if Movie World could keep these models after filming has completed and be able to display them somewhere - whether it be a future Movie Magic Tour of some description or just displays them around the ride or something, and even perhaps as a replacement to the Matrix exhibit. I am still really hoping that some of the sets and props from the film might be transported north from Sydney to be used as part of the ride theming up here at Movie World.

Movie World has finally updated their website for Shrek and I also recieved a little email from them about it as well.

I just saw the last ten seconds of the ad on Channel Ten here in Brisbane (conveniently followed by a promotion for Wiggle's World), but nevertheless it has definately begun showing in Brisbane.

Well I couldn't decide which one to buy either so I just bought both and I'm glad I did. I find that now that I visit the parks more often then I used to I don't need as much time in each park and since I always go on a weekday when the park isn't too busy it doesn't usually take long to get a couple of rides each on some of my favourites. Therefore I find it great to visit both parks in one day - dividing time up for 3.5 hours at each. This way I get a much greater variety of rides and also get to watch the construction on Superman. Buying both of course is twice as expensive but if I was only able to choose one I really wouldn't know which one to go for - but it would probably have been Movie World because it has some of my favourite rides and also means I get to see Superman construction and then ride it when it opens - plus its cheaper as you mentioned.