Baconjack

I don't think Vekoma was offering new trains for SLC's at the time AA/LW was upgraded (correct me if I'm wrong) so Kumbak was the only option. Plus when Village made the deal I don't think they were aware with how much damage the trains did to Corkscrew at the time. After what happened with Corkscrew it was only a matter of time before something similar happened with AA. Village jumped the gun with the upgrade if they waited a few more years but they seemingly were eager to integrate the ride with the DC area

Haha what? Lemme go through this post one by one. A certain park on the Sunshine Coast, a certain park a few kilometres down the road, and a certain park in Sydney would all disagree with that statement (to think about it, most of the wild mouse coasters we have/had are good ones haha) So what? Both of these examples were nearing the end of their lives. DW was quite fortunate to get ToT and Wipeout operational as long as they were able to given how both were in and out of operation in their last years. They didn't just say 'fuck it, we're removing rides to make the park smaller' it was a byproduct of decades of sub par maintenance and at the end of the day is what will happen when you are running rare ride types or prototype rides. Buzzsaw was the same. Replacements will come in time, a Wipeout replacement is more than likely in the pipeline. Again, so what? In 2019 you had 4 average at best coasters, to now a good one and two average coasters. I've said it before but i'll repeat it, but I'll take a good ride in Steel Taipan over a bone rattly tin can and a 'flagship attraction' that barely made it halfway up the tower in its last years. I'm sure most people on this forum think similarly. I get DW is in a bad spot atm but the reason we aren't complaining about it is because Buzzsaw's replacement is opening in a few months. Gold Coaster is a boring ride but in comparison to Buzzsaw it is no wonder why Dreamworld decided to spend money giving it new trains, a paint job, and a retheme, the like. The ride is built like a tank. Buzzsaw on the other hand was barely able to stay open especially in the last 5 years. Anyone who kept a close eye on Dreamworld in that time would be able to tell you this. The numerous Buzzsaw lap bar failures would like to disagree.

Old mate may have a point. The chair lift is missing from the park map nor is it on the website. It seems to have been closed last season as well. Take this as you will

This is a good example of when it's done right. The trucks are themed appropriately to the event and isn't some random Boost Juice van plonked on the street or a Royal Show truck with stock graphics plonked in the entrance plaza. A custom graphic on the DW truck would have been nice, for example.

How far have our theme park standards fallen when Royal Show-level trucks can just be plopped in like this? The MW example is more egregious as it is a big green truck that breaks the presentation of main street but DW's truck is still tacky. LPS sells showbags in its own dedicated building so why can't DW do that in the main gift shop?

Apples and oranges comparison. Wipeout was an unreliable ride type (that was one of 2 standing in the world at its closure with barely any spare parts around) that so many parks gave up on years ago. DW was lucky that ride was able to run as long as it did. Gold Coaster is the complete opposite, the ride is mechanically very simple and the layout isn't forceful enough to put much stress on the track compared to bigger rides of the same model. DW should be able to get 10 years out of it at a minimum if maintained correctly.

People really do forget Village is going to be building a hotel at some point in the next few years on top of the planned AA replacement which is by all accounts going to be a significant capex investment. Did we say Village was declining during the 2010-2016 era where a good chunk of the major attractions at SW were closed without a replacement?

If memory serves me correct, the planning rules the state government put in place at LPS a few years ago limits rides be no taller than 30 metres making installation of something like Buzzsaw impossible. Hair Raiser was grandfathered in as this was implemented a few years ago and all the new installations are made to be compliant with these regs.

I'm sure that some random with a gopro mounted onto a chest rig would create a better POV than what you see here

The more I think about it, the more I realise that the eurofighter would have been pretty lame. I've not seen the POV or animation at all, but I could picture a layout pretty much in my head and needless to say I'm glad they didn't end up picking it in the end. There is only so much you can do with the plot of land that's been allocated for BD and the hot racer is the best choice for that by far.

The train is literally full on racing deco. Exhaust pipes, grille and everything. It's like this coaster is in an identity crisis as to what it wants to be themed. Hopefully there's another train that I don't know about because capacity is going to be steaming garbage with just 1 train

IMAScore have done heaps of work for parks in Europe. A lot of European parks in recent years have involved them for onboard audio on their new build coasters (ie Helix, Karnan, Movie Park Studio Tour, Taron, The Smiler) That being said I don't expect Ardent to be setting any precedents by going above and beyond to hire these guys to do a score for Steel Taipan but man it would be a nice touch. But it's better to have nothing than try and half ass it by having freestyler on the speakers. On board audio is either something you have to do really well or just don't do at all. Given I don't see DW doing it well, effort should be instead spent elsewhere in integrating the coaster into the park.

Chinese parks will probably end up buying the domestically produced knock off of Buzzsaw that's quite popular over there rather than a used copy of the genuine version. My vote goes to Southeast Asia as well. I'd be keen to see Rainbow's End buy this though, it's a real bargain for a big thrill ride, but the park is landlocked, has developed almost all its land, and would struggle to fit in even Buzzsaw unless they plopped it in the parking lot. Adventure World is far from pressed for space on the other hand and this could be easily plonked in whatever space they wanted to if they were interested in buying as well.

I see the "Dippin dots guy said this" meme that goes around the roller coaster enthusiast community has now eventually spread onto here. It was only a matter of time. Why would you suddenly be aware of an NDA (let alone be covered by it) if you weren't an employee of village in the 1st place? Are your mates breaking theirs giving you this "information"?

When the vehicles were upgraded in 2015 they installed fitted out Vekoma train bodies while leaving the original Arrow chassis intact. Cyclone/BD vehicle bodies were very likely thrown in the skip bin after that, without any real use for them, or were thrown in the boneyard and eventually cleared out a few years after for the lazy river. Wasn't there another original Big Dipper carriage that fell into the possession of somebody else and still exists? The park itself maybe? Even then for a 'theme' there will probably be some photos and captions of the previous coasters to look at but even that's wishful thinking. Kind of like what was/is in the Big Dipper tower when you walked up it to get to Tumble Bug? But in all honesty the 'theming' is already there - the tower itself.

Provided that literally nothing has been changed externally to Boomerang's ride vehicles other than some decals I'm going to say it'll be the same deal for Big Dipper. Maybe a decal or two on the lead car, but nothing much else. Hopefully Intamin have a generic version of the ride vehicle with an alternative wheel bogie cover because I would say with the one seen in the animations looks quite dumb and out of place for LPS.

It more less has something to do with it being constantly shut for maintenance in the last few years. No different to Tower. By all accounts it seems Buzzsaw wasn't an easy ride to maintain. I'll take Steel Taipan over Buzzsaw and TOT any day of the week. I'm sure most people in here will as well. Continuing to limp on shithouse aging attractions was the DW strategy in the past, but you just can't get away with that these days.

Lockdown and not going to parks has gotten me rather bored so I've been building an Epcot-style park as a PLC project. I might share some more photos as I keep working on this if interested!

I think it's a bit unfair to call out Mark Shaw and AW management for Abyss. It was a good investment for the biggest gap in the park's lineup. The main flaw with it is that lap bars should have been installed on the trains at the start rather than the shoulder restraints, which were already not doing favours to some of the older eurofighters back then. DW on the other hand paid almost half of Abyss's budget for Buzzsaw (figure was $7m iirc) from a much larger park. Buzzsaw is a more egregious example of being cheap imo. There was a time when Adventure World was seen as the benchmark for theme park operation in this country and that's when Mark was around.

What a flop of a ride. Through and through disaster. A shit ride bought from a 3rd tier manufacturer (maybe 2nd tier if you want to be generous) that was purchased because it was the cheapest option for a ride. Ran into the ground for its entire life and eventually aged into a shithouse bone shaker. Frequently in and out of closure for about half of its time at DW and outlived by a coaster three times its age. Not to mention, it ran for only 9 years before Ardent gave up, an embarrassment considering literal prototype coasters have operated for twice as long before closing. This is why you invest in high quality attractions and maintain them properly, rather than going for quite literally the cheapest possible option. Let Buzzsaw serve as a warning to our parks wanting to cheap out on attractions and maintenance as it is the prime example of what happens when operators don't care about their parks.

I've heard this idea on here before, from memory there were whispers that Village was toying with the idea of having Intamin to come in and re-work the ride system a few years back, but I wouldn't be 100% certain on that.

Visited site this afternoon. Some finishing touches on maloneys corner with boomerang station painted yellow and a tent surrounding Boomerang's helix, walls are down for what was meant to be Friday. BD hill section before 1st launch is up as well. Looks like they might be leaving the second section till later

Village sold heaps of Bermuda Triangle animatronics years ago and props from various old attractions many years ago didn't they? DW could have made some money from selling ride props from TOT, wipeout and rocky hollow, maybe even what was in the boneyard. Worst case scenario if you don't sell, bin it, best case scenario you make money off some person who wants to pay bonkers amounts for ride theming. Might end up not selling but should have given it a go.

Seems like they will try to get as much of the work for BD done as possible on the midway section this week before opening day, then work will be done around the maloney's corner side on the weekdays the park isn't open. Expecting progress to be slow or heaps of testing if they are trying to get it done for a December opening though

Look take some graphics made for the LPS website with a grain of salt but this seems to make the possibility that the dodgem building is being gutted and used as the queue for BD very real