Baconjack
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Posts posted by Baconjack
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I'd love to see Aussie World, LPM or Adventure World gobble up Buzzsaw if they were prepared to buy it. A pretty cheap way to add a big ride that doesn't take up a lot of land.
DW buying buzzsaw was a head scratching decision for me. They bought a ride from a low tier manufacturer that had a poor track record even at the time whose most successful models are small spinning coasters and wild mice.
Remember that when Buzzsaw was built Ardent at the time was penny pinching... I wouldn't be surprised to hear that when they realised they had to get a big thrill ride they went with the cheapest possible option, which was more than likely the skyloop. Nowadays DW have to live with the consequences of their owners being cheapskates with yet another problem child ride in their lineup.
Almost 10 years after the fact DW have a double whammy, a ride that is most of the time shut, and when it's not shut, its a ride that nobody wants to queue up for because it is a one trick pony that also doubles as a bone shaker.
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32 minutes ago, StingRay said:
I get you that you think it is essentially "cheap and nasty" and it ain't MW or Dw standard. But they are trying to be true to the parks entire history. The face is based from the 1960s along with Coney island and the outside of the crystal palace. Everything else is kinda retro and represents the 80's. But it literally does us alright.
I mean I suppose if LPS seems this bad I would hate to know what LPM is then.
MW or DW standard isnt exactly a high bar to be fair at the minute, especially considering Westfield is an appropriate standard for both companies in terms of presentation.
They are already halfway there in terms of presentation, the historical buildings and aforementioned Flying Saucer/Big Dipper fixtures have been done up and look fantastic. But anywhere else thats where the presentation starts to crumble. Maloney's corner is basically a parking lot with zero scenery whatsoever, something acceptable for the Royal Show, not a boardwalk park.
Keeping around the 80's rides is not retro. There is a difference between retro and outdated. Tumble Bug, Ranger and Spider are all examples of the latter and in an ideal world should be replaced ASAP but as we know the process to build a new ride is extremely lengthy so it will be a long time till we see all 3 replaced with actual proper 'retro' rides that call back to the 60's. Similarly, suggesting that literal carnival rides are 'true to the park's aesthetic and history' is a pretty bad take, though for reasons I've already said that doesn't bother me too much.
Perhaps I think too much of LPS but I do see potential for it to be our equivalent of Grona Lund that is well presented. Given what has been done so far its definitely showing some promise but there's still a long way to go to finish up the park's transformation in the buildings. Maloney's Corner needs to be properly integrated into the park rather than what it is now, Tumble Bug/dodgems fixture needs a redo, Big Top needs some paint, and the ticket booth needs a repaint. Plus some new permanent rides that match the presentation of Volare. Not too tall an order to be honest considering what they have been able to achieve so far.
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56 minutes ago, rappa said:
They should be looking at more Silly Symphony Swings and less Side Show Alley. How that park doesn’t have a beautifully presented wave swinger is beyond me.
They do. Volare is probably the best presented ride in the park and has a decent set of LED's when compared to the old flats. TBH that doesnt say a lot considering a good chunk of the park screams parking lot coaster.
The renovation of the existing fixtures is something I'm definitely a fan of. The old Flying Saucer lighthouse & cafe repaint and the old Big Dipper entrance look a lot better than they used to be plus the LED packages are a nice touch as well. Pretty sure that's all done now because that aspect of change is a lot easier to get past the residents.
Look gimme a new coaster anyday and LPS have looked at one in the past but it'll be difficult to fit a decent one in given the space they have, let alone constructing one which is practically begging for resident action given the endless battle Multiplex has with the neighbours. A ride on the scale of Sidewinder/GoldCoaster is not going to happen again.
At the end of the day LPS is hard pressed for space and the space is better spent on an extra flat or hell even an empty space for school holiday rides. I'm definitely not a fan of the 'school holiday rides' strategy as it completely breaks the park's appearance and screams Royal Show rather than a genuine effort at a boardwalk park but I recognise that it is a crucial component of the amusements side of the park.
A park like Grona Lund would be a good example to hold LPS to account. A very good boardwalk park that is well presented that doesn't need the flashy rides. I think they are halfway there and they are definitely trying but administrative and planning issues has definitely slowed those plans to a halt so they have no choice but to keep their 80's carnival rides running for as long as possible.
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2 hours ago, Slick said:
How are we feeling about how wildly different both Dreamworld & Sea World's announcement renders are compared to what we're getting at this point?
I don't want to jump the gun too much as both projects aren't actually complete (hell, one hasn't technically broken ground yet) but it has been interesting to watch not just minor but major aesthetic changes to both projects transform basically overnight. Is it then a result of both brands making it up as they go or perhaps, like many major engineering projects (skyscrapers in particular come to mind), there's been a disconnect between expectation vs. reality?
I think its quite a common practice in the theme park industry to create an ambitious vision for a ride and then suddenly things like budget come into play and things slowly get cut over time. Its not a new thing for our parks either - remember Storm? Buzzsaw? I don't think the creativity and ambition to build those themed experiences is there when compared to the time when Bermuda Triangle and LTRR were built. For quite a while Village has taken the angle of building big coasters and flashy flats with bare bones presentation over a truly cohesive and themed experience and that can be definitely seen by any ride at MW built in the last 10 years which has a nice sign, some 2D graphics here and there, but when they try to create a themed experience such as the Scooby-Doo refurb they fail.
To demonstrate what I mean with difference between expecation/reality here's a concept made for Superman at SFMM. You couldnt even tell that this project was going to be for a Six Flags park, but when budgets came into play, obviously much of this extensive theming was scaled back.
Even Disney projects have had at least some degree of difference between expectation vs reality at some point, need one only glance at the difference between concept and reality for any post-Paris Eisner project neutered by budget cuts such as New Tomorrowland, the Hong Kong park and DCA to see that.
On the topic of the DW coaster I don't necessarily see any major differences between concept and finished product. On that end it will be similar to what we see in the NL render with decent landscaping and what have you. Given, DW hasn't promised anywhere remotely close to the level of detail that SW have put on the Atlantis precinct, so its much easier to deliver on that regard.
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1 hour ago, Slick said:
Can I address the elephant in the room here...
Why aren't they building a crazy-good compact coaster on site, building a few modern thrill rides that leverage the site's position really well (a Sky Roller would go bonza against the water's edge - https://www.gerstlauer-rides.de/produkte/rundfahrgeschaefte/sky-roller/ ) and just going ham with F&B?
I just don't get it, they seem to be dragging their feet on some old, end of service life rides and squandering what would have to be Australia's most well-placed amusement park. It should print money every day of the year.
Lots and lots of red tape and planning shit has to go through.
Thats probably the only reason why this park has sat on its hand and nothing has progressed. It is a seemingly endless battle that has no winner. From what I've seen LPS try to procur, I can say they have tried but too often this doesn't see the light of day.
When you have picky rich neighbours that have a pretty extensive history of having a sook every single time a new ride gets installed or announced it should be no surprise that things have slowed. Its been the plan for nearly 10 years to give the whole park a facelift and all thats happened since then is a like for like ride replacement, a few building fixture changes and a Wave Swinger that opened 2 years after initially planned. If we were at the pace management wanted everything would have been replaced by now.
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2 hours ago, AheadMatthewawsome said:
When I was there back on July 3rd. When you get up to the Tumble Bug. It is all blocked out by fencing. I did record it all blocked up, but I can't upload it to Parkz. It seems like they are going to replace it with something. Sadly, if it gets removed, I would of never gotten to ride it. As I get sick even by a little kids teacup ride! Nor the Spider or the Tumble Bug. When I go back there next time, I will have a chat with the Management about what is happening with the HUSS rides.
Did you see anything happening at the Ranger?
As for what is happening theyve planned to pull these rides for a number of years now as the 25+ years worth of sea air has meant that they have been reaching the end of their service life. When they got rid of Flying Saucer a few years back it was obvious that the other rides were on the way out. I wouldn't be surprised if this was indeed the final knell for Tumble Bug and Ranger.
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These products seem generally bland and uninspired.
The Giga Splash seems like a modern take on the old Perilous Plunge concept Intamin did in the past, the Ultra Splash is basically identical to a Mack powersplash and the Hot Racer seems like their take on West Coast Racer. I like the idea of a powersplash at DW personally but a family water ride definitely needs to come first.
I personally don’t mind the idea of a Joker themed RMC or one of the new Vekoma inverts that have the new gen track. A large coaster that has inversions is the gap in the park’s lineup when you take out AA. Not to mention you’d have a pretty stellar top 3 not just in Australia but in the entire world. I would have preferred something like Steel Curtain at MW but the likelihood Village deals with S&S again is slim to none.
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14 hours ago, mba2012 said:
I've forgotten if this has been brought up at all or not, but if Dreamworld ends up not building this coaster, how likely would it be that Village might pick it up cheaply? Do coasters in this kind of situation often end up going for much less than the price they were sold to the original park at? And presumably whoever picks it up would have to pay shipping costs as well, so MW/SW would be saving some money there.
While it wouldn't be as exciting as other possibilities, it would still be a pretty solid addition to either Movie World or Sea World.
Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhh... no.
Let's have a think about it.
WnW can be excluded for obvious reasons. As for SW, I think it wouldn't be a bad idea to build this, however they are going to be short on land after Leviathan is built. MW is a bit more tricky. I think its too close of an experience to Superman however the triple launch and inversions does provide at least some degree of differentiation. At the moment though, MW is landlocked so the only way it could go in is by ripping out a ride such as AA (which is definitely a likely possibility at this point).
More likely than not if it is sold, its going overseas to a park in China, Vietnam or Thailand. Much less likely, one of our small local parks such as Adventure World or Aussie World buy it and put themselves on the map, but a ride like this I feel is outside of either park's financial resources especially after being strained by the pandemic.
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9 hours ago, Brad2912 said:
Fantastic write up, thanks @Gazza
ive never really considered Japan as I’ve always said I’d rather take the family to the OG parks in the US before we go to the others, but with our US trip cancelled for this year due to covid and potentially no change on the horizon with the situation over there, Japan may become a real viable option.
are all the rides/shows in English or dubbed/subtitled at least?
From my visit last year its a mixed bag.
Most of the major rides are in Japanese, many of which not having any subtitles. That includes Harry Potter, Despicable Me and Spider-Man. Didn't ride Jaws or Terminator on my visit so I can't comment on those.
A few of the shows are mixed English/Japanese and they have subtitles in most of the shows that take place indoors such as the Sing one. However others dont have subtitles, such as the Backdraft walkthrough and Waterworld.
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7 hours ago, Coasterlife said:
Sizzler seems to be replacing the moon ranger for the holidays and the tumble bug is not on the updated map as well as the mystery manor haunted house so this may mean that mystery manor will not be back
Manor closed last year so its been gone for a while now. It was always meant to be a temporary attraction from the start however its stay was extended because of its popularity.
Unfortunately you can't just walk into the park at the moment and see what's going on these days. Ranger and Tumble Bug being deleted from the map pretty much confirms the end of their stay at the park, though. So much for a send off but anyone following LPS closely in recent years knew Ranger's days were numbered.
11 hours ago, rappa said:If they look to remove the Rotor or Coney Island then we should all start getting angry.
Speaking of which....
There's an odd one missing. Rotor isn't mentioned on the map either. Site says its down for maintenance and unlike Tumble Bug or Ranger it still has the page on it up, so I don't think it gets axed. The thought of removing it is enough to generate some Mr Toad's vibes given its history and popularity with the public.
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LPS have been looking to get rid of Ranger for at least the last three years so its removal doesnt surprise me at all. Matter of fact, a couple of years ago they nearly sold it to a showman until the deal fell through at the 11th hour. Tumble Bug is the real surprise here as I thought it would be the last of the Huss flats to be pulled. Nonetheless, both rides are showing their age now having operated nearly continuously for 30+ years originally coming from expo, and 25 years of sea air hasn't treated them nicely.
I enjoyed these rides growing up too and have ridden them hundreds of times each, but it is a positive sign that the Park is removing these rides because this is part of their long term plan to update the park - LPS have been trying to get rid of their old Huss flats for the better part of a decade at this point.
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3 hours ago, zacsta_1997 said:
For those that have been to the major parks in the US, which parks would you recommend visiting more than one day for?? Thanks.
just planning 2 years early. 😂I am also planning a trip to America for next year. Doing LA, Ohio, New York and Florida, anything in a nearby distance I've put into consideration to go to.
The obvious ones are the Disney parks and Universal. Cedar Point and Six Flags Magic Mountain would probably be 2 day parks if you want to get the major rides in. I can't think of any of the other Six Flags or Cedar Fair chain parks needing 2 days unless you want to do absolutely everything. Maybe you could make the case for Great Adventure or Kings Island but I haven't allocated 2 days to do either.
Walt Disney World I've chosen to spend 5 days at, 1 for Magic Kingdom, Epcot, MGM Studios, Animal Kingdom, and Star Wars gets its own day because from what I've read the crowds are ridiculous for that area alone. Universal Studios is probably 2-3 days, 1 for the main park, another for Islands of Adventure, and another for just Harry Potter, again, the crowds I hear are ridiculous for the Harry Potter rides.
If you do Disney parks, to save time I picked one park to go and do as much of, so 5 days for WDW. Having Disneyland added on is another 3 days minimum to do everything, even though I'll be in LA to go to Six Flags Magic Mountain. Similarly, I chose to go to Universal Orlando over Hollywood for the same reason, although Hollywood could be probably done in one day.
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11 hours ago, Naazon said:
Who was the bloke that did the No Limits render for Rivals? Wonder if this is his work
@docoaster is the guy who did Rivals rendering.
VRTP picked him up after he posted a prediction POV based on the footers so Village looking at these forums is not new.
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1 hour ago, Vman4103 said:
Speaking of the early days of Sidewinder/Cyclone/Big Dipper/Whateverthehellitsgonnabecallednow, I finally managed to find footage of the coaster in action at Luna Park. I have to say, having that view while riding is pretty freakin' cool!
Honestly looking at some of the photos of the in progress painting, it reminds me of the old Big Dipper colours with the old yellow track and the repainted white supports.
While I never rode it in Sydney, I'd imagine seeing that view of the bridge and Lavender Bay is a lot better than what you see at the current location - the DW parking lot and Buzzsaw to the right. Really added to the charm of the ride, as mediocre as the ride may be. In hindsight though its a wonder how they got away with building a coaster that tall and large.
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It seems to me this clickbait shit was written in 2018 by some washed up journo, mothballed for a couple of years and then finally published in lockdown in a desperate click hungry cash grab. The complete absence of any of the three attractions Dreamworld closed in 2019 is very telling of this.
The demographics that this kind of clickbait crap usually appeals to are very likely going to have no idea what Magic Mountain is or any of the opening day MW attractions.
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17 hours ago, Jdude95 said:
It would probably gain a record for tallest, face first, free fall tower too
Adding onto this point this is where I consider such a conversion to be marketable. Records are eye catching to the public and also to an extent overseas as well with the advent of social media and clickbait videos (see the Stratosphere rides as an example). There's a reason why for nearly 20 years, theme parks around the world were constantly trying to build the biggest, longest and fastest rides, something DW themselves participated in.
DC Rivals was built up as the tallest, fastest and longest coaster in the Southern Hemisphere. While those stats mean jack shit for us who are well read on the industry, for the GP that don't know how many roller coasters are south of the equator, it makes it appear a lot bigger and impressive than it really is.
So imagine Dreamworld having the world's tallest and fastest face first drop tower, as well as being the only ride of its type in Australia, the Southern Hemisphere, and just 1 of 3 in the entire world. If the conversion is found to be structurally and financially feasible, it honestly seems like a no-brainer to me, and along with a new thrill ride to replace Wipeout, makes Dreamworld's thrill ride collection almost comparable to what's on offer down the road.
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Aussie World should consider a Larson-style drop tower like the model LPS has installed.
I've always though it was the best ride at Luna Park in my opinion - that drop tower is tiny but it is a genuinely terrifying ride experience, even compared to GD which is over two times the height and other tall drop towers I've ridden overseas.
Perfect fit for the park in my opinion, as it isnt an oversized frog hopper like the Zamperla offerings, and it probably is within their budget compared to the Intamin and S&S offerings.
As for the face down gondola Falcon's Fury tech, a lot of people on these forums (myself included) have suggested Dreamworld look into whether or not the existing Dreamworld Tower can be converted to use the Falcon's Fury-style ride cars. In my opinion, I think this is how we will get such an experience in Australia.
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Short answer no.
Long answer, unless a park really wants to give the media an easy comparison of their new rapids ride to TRRR, a rapids ride is something parks on the Gold Coast are going to avoid with a ten foot pole, especially Dreamworld.
It wouldn't take much to imagine the amount of bad publicity a park would get if another rapids ride was built on the Gold Coast. In my opinion, this publicity that I'd anticipate is far too great to warrant ever buying one of these. You'll see the news having a field day comparing the new ride to TRRR, the conjuring up of memories of the TRRR disaster, and thus, subsequent GP criticism of a park buying a ride that killed people only a few years ago. Unfortunately thats the way the media reports on theme parks today, even if the amusement industry (both parks and manufacturers) has worked hard to make sure guest safety is at the forefront of everything they do.
Maybe a decade or so down the track when the TRRR disaster inevitably becomes another footnote in history, but as of right now, it would be in poor taste to build a new rapids ride and would probably leave a stain on the park's reputation. The stench of the TRRR disaster will still remain in the local industry for at least another 5 years, if not longer.
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I remember making a Six Flags Australia park in RCT3 when I was like 14 or 15 years old. Too bad the hard drive I had that save on broke, because I'd happily look at what kid me thought was cool to put into a theme park.
As for rides and attractions to add, pick any one of these Six Flags favourites.
- RMC Raptor
- S&S 4D Free Spin
- RMC Hybrid Ground Up
- Larson Super Loop (marketed as a 'coaster')
- Funtime Starflyer
- Zamperla Giant Discovery
- Insert Zamperla Flat Ride Here
- Justice League Dark Ride Clone
Bonus points if any of these rides are named The Joker, Goliath, (Harley Quinn) Spinsanity, Skyscreamer or Wonder Woman.
Good luck getting anything else. Six Flags is so hilariously cheap when it comes to their parks that you can literally guess what a park gets out of a list because they order a lot of clones.
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On the topic of the kiddie coaster that was suggested, you dont necessarily have to buy a ride used. Its an SBF Visa model - a manufacturer LPS has worked with in the past and is at a price point LPS can definitely afford, however we have to take into consideration that the Park, as of 2017, was planning to invest $20 million into new attractions, some of which has assumedly already been spent on Volare, a new U-Drive and the refurbishment of the old Flying Saucer fixtures. I'm not sure if that figure has changed since then, but that's what I'm basing this off of.
What my point is, is that LPS only have X amount of money to spend. I don't think they will have much capital left over when they are finished replacing the older rides (bear in mind, there are 4 of these rides to replace) and upgrading some of the other buildings in the park (eg, Big Top needs to be repainted, and the building that houses Dodgem City will probably need an upgrade as well). While such a ride is not going to cost much, $20 million is not a lot of money in theme park terms. Up the coast Village and Ardent are spending more than that for single rides. I think that amount of money will only be able to buy those 4 rides, plus those aforementioned building repaints/upgrades
If the Government ever decides to develop the Lavender Bay storage tracks, it'll most likely be redeveloped into green space (as noted in the above proposal). I don't see any of it going to LPS because the resident uproar would be exorbitant, considering the recent opposition to the Lavender Green development as an 'expansion', imagine the outrage if LPS did actually get more land.
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In my opinion they'll either try to renew the license or give it an IP-less retheme. A revival of the Kenny character would be a good idea for the latter. If DW try to renew it, I believe it falls through because in what universe is Comcast going to license one of their properties to a competitor.
I do not think the area will get a new IP, because there aren't many relevant and major family oriented IP's to choose from these days that don't have the theme park rights to them clawed up by Disney, Village or Universal. In fact, I can't think of any IP's off the top of my head that could take over the Dreamworks space.
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2 hours ago, A.H said:
Does anyone know how many trains Dreamworld is ordering for this coaster?
2 hours ago, Flynn_Smith said:I mean, you'd have to imagine there's going to be at least 3? No point for a MCBR if there isn't at least 3.
Blue Fire (the original) was designed with the MCBR in mind as part of its many block sections so it could operate with 5 trains to handle the crowds Europa Park gets (this is the 2nd most attended park in Europe after Disney, mind you). To my knowledge its clones dont operate anywhere near as many trains, the ones in China all operate with 2 trains and the one in Dubai operates with 3.
My brain tells me that 2 trains will be ordered, the same amount as what Village ordered with DCR.
It should be enough capacity for DW to get through crowds in peak summer period. It'll be a people eater for a signature ride especially when compared to the piss poor capacity TOT had. I recall reading somewhere a while back about when DW was discussing the spinning cars, it was said they were ordering 2 trains for this ride, something that seems to be confirmed by a search on the coaster's RCDB page.
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10 hours ago, gp12x said:
That’s what i’ve been thinking for weeks! Compact but can pack a punch, plus according to their 2019 budget on google and the estimated price of the two currently standing ones it would be just fit for them!
As great of an idea as it sounds, no way the whole process of removing rides, groundwork, footers, and vertical construction for a roller coaster all happens in a month.
This is probably going to be the usual temporary ride or a Mystery Manor type experience. Maybe a flat ride, but if it was, construction on it would have started at least two weeks ago, with a ride being picked and removed from the park (the markings on the concrete near Ranger might be telling something in relation to this).
I haven't been there for a while so I'm not sure if the Manor building is still on site. If it is, it is definitely plausible something will take residence in that building.
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On 19/04/2020 at 2:54 AM, Spotty said:
Funny you should say that about Superman, from having operating it and many of the MW rides it honestly is one of the more reliable rides in the park. It wasn't very common to have ride shutdowns, Scooby and Green Lantern I would say are the 2 least reliable rides in the park (well they were when I worked there)
I completely agree that Superman is a reliable ride and Village are doing a good job keeping it up.
But in general the accelerator (and its launch technology) isn't a reliable ride from what I've read on installations overseas. I hear that Knotts Berry Farm's installation is a maintenance nightmare that's constantly down. Similarly, Top Thrill Dragster also has significant downtime from what I've read, and Kingda Ka has had its fair share of issues when in operation. That's where I draw such a conclusion.
Either way, in spite of its reliability, Intamin have discontinued building hydraulic launch coasters in favour of the more reliable LSM models and I believe that it is only a matter of time before other models of its type are closed and parts are discontinued entirely.
Village Roadshow releases full year results, commits to ride removals and new additions
in Theme Park Discussion
Posted · Edited by Baconjack
Arkham is gone for sure 100% given its closure has essentially been a foregone conclusion for a very long time. My guess is the monorail is the other ride that closes. Don't know much about WnW so I won't comment on what could go there.
I think you're forgetting DW still has 6 major thrill rides, soon to be 7. Their three coasters they have may be a laughable joke especially when compared to whats down the road but flats wise they are still well ahead of Village's offerings even after losing Wipeout. Same goes for family and kids rides although ABC kids losing its anchor in Big Red Car Ride doesn't help.
The figure Ardent committed to spending last year ($50 million) leaves room for around $20m of capex when discounting the coaster. I think it was discussed at the time as being allocated towards a flat to replace Wipeout and the ABC Kids World expansion which was going to take over TOT and BRCC. These plans obviously being mothballed nowadays given corona.
Sidewinder won't be going anywhere given Dreamworld are repainting it at the minute and the coaster is quite simple mechanically when compared to let's say, Wipeout or TOT. Neither will Shockwave given its a very common ride type that's not very old with plenty of manufacturer support and spare parts.