Baconjack

Surfrider/flash is a family ride compared to claw. The speed on claw (and other pendulum rides) is far greater than surfrider and exhibits a better degree of force. Maybe it is run a bit faster at movie world but when it was at wet n wild I thought it was slow and quite boring. If you are looking for a thrill it’s not even a contest between the 2

Doing a similar trip but around Japan after finishing up uni, between end of November and early December. From my research Fuji Q and Nagashima are open during winter and are not packed but I’m expecting weather to affect ops of certain rides, fair dinkum because it will be cold. You could fit Fuji q in easily - bus ride from Tokyo drops you off in the morning then stay the night nearby, I’m doing that then heading south to Nagoya. Nagashima probably requires going to Nagoya the previous day, staying the night around there, going to the park, staying another night, then leaving next morning. At least that’s how I’m doing it. USJ from what I am reading is packed during the end of the year - so get the express pass (you’ll need it to do anything in Harry Potter or Nintendo) - only doing a repeat visit for Nintendo and Jaws as I missed out on that last time. Same thing goes for Tokyo Disney(Sea) - but I’m not forking out money for fast passes there and instead have a list of rides that are non negotiables that I will get on during the day. (Eg: big thunder, haunted mansion, and splash are top of the list for Disney, and journey, Indy, and tower of terror for disneysea). Spending a day at each of these as I don’t have the time for multi day visits.

Yeah I’d visit on day 1 if it ever got off the ground but I doubt it will. The park itself is a good idea if not a little ambitious, the scale of what they promise is a bit excessive. Did some digging and the company behind this is legit, the guy is legit, seems like Sega themselves are in for another crack and they’ve got plenty of cash. Something like this would draw interest from the public - the last time something was attempted in Docklands (paramount in the late 90’s) it was very poorly timed with fox studios opening and investors got scared off and they never got the money to build. But it’s a very interesting choice of IP. Yes it’s a strong IP now but will it be in 5 years without the movies? Sonic is not a timeless IP like superheroes and scooby-doo. Yes Sonic has been around for 30 years but it wasn’t popular 5 years ago, making it the central IP is just foolish. The logic of “our brand is huge” was used to build Sega World and it failed (among other circumstances). Those circumstances have changed though, indoor entertainment places are a huge thing now, Timezone is bigger than its ever been, escape rooms are popular, among other types of activities like go kart places and so on.

Different type of ride to Indy. Is every ride with a temple facade covering a steel shed a knock off of Indy based on your logic? Also this is the very first time this specific theme has been attempted here so unsure of what your other examples are. And even if it was a knock off with a similar ride system is that really a bad thing, 2 out of the 3 parks on the coast were built with that mantra and managed to create something special. Also theres still a good chunk of park visitors that will neither visit Disneyland or Disneysea because it is a low priority for them compared to other places. Just because people like us want to visit those parks at least once why preclude punters from a ride experience that goes around an ancient temple that’s in their backyard?

The two photos not related to the coaster are absolute dribble but it’s not a terrible idea getting AI to draw up the vibe you’re going for then working that vibe into actual theming.

This is probably the 2nd or 3rd time I’ve heard of this rumour over the past year. As someone who engages in borderline investigative journalist behaviour when it comes to the topic of Sega theme parks, it is true that the mob operating the Sega theme parks in Japan (not Sega themselves) who have the rights to the sonic ip have had ambitions of building some on our shores in the past (before Covid). Atm there’s nothing to indicate those plans occurring now. Proposals are proposals. Nothing is concrete until trademarks get filed and DA’s come out. I’d say the ambition and passion is there but we’d be solidly many years off, the company got hit very hard during Covid. A full on sonic theme park is quite interesting because yes the IP is in a strong position these days with the movies and games being successful, it wasn’t as recently as 5 years ago. Things can change at the drop of a hat.

It's the camera angle and lighting, the right hand side of the brickwork looks 3d to me

Most people who are visiting movie world have not been on superman 400 times

Intamin released this information (link below) relating to their upgrades. Carbon fibre is lighter than metal anyway so I would have guessed they found the trains on Big Dipper to be too heavy. They also changed the restraints to allow a 120cm height restriction as opposed to the 140 on Big Dipper, much better for a family oriented park. Either way you look at Arkham vs Lethal Weapon, the Arkham trains had heavier bodies, and it had a far far nastier rattle towards the end of its life than it ever did as Lethal Weapon. https://blooloop.com/theme-park/news/intamin-enhances-hot-racer-for-walibi-rhone-alpes/ Again the gaps on the track mean nothing. Between the portions of track that make contact with the wheels of the train (ie: the end rails) the gap is minimal. If you’ve been on it, you’ll know you don’t feel a bump bump bump through the layout.

On the contrary taking the unique uniforms away from the likes of Superman (mrt officer) and Scooby (suit) detracts somewhat from the experience. when you are lining up to go on a subway through metropolis, your suspension of disbelief is diminished when a bloke in a blue village roadshow polo is giving you instructions on how to board.

The thing is that big dipper’s roughness is not a result of the way the track is assembled it’s an issue with the ride’s trains being too heavy for the track it rides on. You don’t feel any of the pot holes/gaps you have mentioned throughout the ride, the rattle is only noticeable during moments of high intensity (the pullout between the non inverting loop and the sidewinder being the prime example). I think that might be leading to some stress on the track, so the rattles gotten a bit worse over time. I personally don’t mind it, you have to accept coasters will have at least a little bit of rattle in our climate, but I can see why it would put some people off. on mahuka the trains have been re-done with carbon fibre lap bars among other improvements that make the trains a lot lighter than big dipper’s ones. By all accounts this has made the ride much smoother (based on people’s opinions who have been on both installs) - would love to see the new owners of Luna park upgrade the trains on theirs to this new spec but I’m not holding my breath.

That’s a tiny bit of land looking at google maps, so good on them for fitting all of that in. Should be good for the locals

Good time for brookfield to cash out after everything they’ve added in the last decade. They’ll probably make quite a bit off the sale compared to what they bought for. I suspect another developer (or Lindsay fox type) will buy and keep it long term, village probably won’t buy the park unless BGH think it will be a cash out opportunity when they inevitably sell (even if the park makes shitloads off its venue operations), and ardent will cash out of dreamworld and wind up in the next 5 years or so.

Yeah it’s now owned by the same guy as the rainbow (march’s), it’s just started doing shows again this year. Hasn’t hit any majors yet though unfortunately hopefully that changes in the future, there is a dearth of good rides at major shows these days beyond your generic swing and spew crap. Would love to see taipan (and rainbow when it’s up and running) back at the Easter show one day

I believe they are still working on it, operating off a reliable source who works in the industry. Spent money on blasting the steel relatively recently, they’re not binning it if they spent money on that. It’s also fibreglass, they can easily just get a third party to make new fibreglass parts it’s not that complex, and the restraints are getting changed heavily to bring the ride up to code anyway so this means nothing. The owner has just spent a bit of money doing up Taipan that’s only just started going around the show circuit so this has sat on the back burner for a while