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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

Benzin said:
They put so much effort into reducing the height restriction with the new trains, only a few years later putting it back up...
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It wouldn't be the first time they have upped a height restriction for reasons of audience maturity/queue management.
 
Rick said:
It wouldn't be the first time they have upped a height restriction for reasons of audience maturity/queue management.
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They ever done it to a ride which they'd only just reduced down a few years prior to offer for the family market? (Though of course the reasons for X having 1.4m in the first place are a different kettle of fish, which ironically flops less than Thorpe's view on attracting families)
 
The ride started out 1.2m in 1996 as well I think?

They say they have to go with these formulaic 'dark' themes because of market research. No doubt these themes are popular when presented to a selection of the public but then why does the park get such poor feedback from the same people, saying it's dirty, run down, grey and poor? Why do the same people love, for example, nightclubs and other high energy, cool & colourful stuff as entertainment?

The real key reason these themes keep getting chosen is because it's well known a theme that consists of old tyres, junk vehicles and barbed wire fences is far cheaper to produce & maintain.

X is right in the centre of the park and one of the first things guests walk past. If it's going to be surrounded by barbed wire and junk then this could be horrific (plus it inevitably won't look as picturesque as that already depressing promo art).

You then have Saw, which looks identical (surely one of these themes in a park is enough), Swarm - grey and bland for the most part, Storm Surge - broken pipes, scrap vehicle and painted-on dirt, Derren Brown's Ghost Train - from the outside is another uncharacteristic drab, dirtied-up box.

They could do absolute wonders with the inside of the ride, it was always designed to have a preshow walkthrough experience and there's plenty of opportunity for it. It's the kind of 'turd' coaster that would actually be vastly improved by VR or effects too. But the theme will surely be just another flash in the pan, unimaginative IP, which will end up looking like Saw Alive and Im A Celebrity.

When they redid X a couple years back as a fun, colourful and loud family coaster, it was really well received despite being just a low budget polishing. It took the right approach again.
 
Good, if it means every clueless Joe is queueing for X:Dead for 3 hours it'll mean all the decent rides will be walk on.

The only downer is X was my sons favourite ride at Thorpe but he won't go near this now.

It's easy to see why they've done it, the scare mazes are very popular at Fright Nights and X has those stupidly long walkways so just replace the corridor with a fence, throw in a few zombie actors and you've got ready made walking dead experience combining two mazes and a coaster.
 
One of the things that also gets me is that they refurbished the ride with new lights and a new soundtrack last season, just to scrap them for the next season.

The whole point of a refurbishment is to extend the longlivity of an attraction.
 
This is Merlin we're talking about, you could say they are a perfect example of ADHD, they spend ages planning, building or refurbishing something, only for something new to catch their eye five minutes after it opens causing them to rip it down and build something else in its place.
 
Benzin said:
They ever done it to a ride which they'd only just reduced down a few years prior to offer for the family market? (Though of course the reasons for X having 1.4m in the first place are a different kettle of fish, which ironically flops less than Thorpe's view on attracting families)
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Fair shout, I suspect it comes on the back of the fact that they need a headline grabbing attraction (relatively) on the cheap.

Bert2theSpark said:
One of the things that also gets me is that they refurbished the ride with new lights and a new soundtrack last season, just to scrap them for the next season.
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It was a very light touch makeover. I am sure the lights will appear elsewhere at Thorpe or somewhere else in the estate, that's a massive advantage of having such scale.

TakeYourMedicine said:
X is right in the centre of the park and one of the first things guests walk past. If it's going to be surrounded by barbed wire and junk then this could be horrific (plus it inevitably won't look as picturesque as that already depressing promo art).
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They might see the building, but I am not sure they will walk past it - it's hardly centre stage since Storm Surge was plonked in front of it.
 
Facebook is already full of families angry at the height increase. *sigh*. Yes, there's Legoland nearby, but it wouldn't hurt either park if Thorpe at least had a semi-decent line up of family rides. In fact, so long as there's nothing too homogeneous about either park, I think Thorpe could become more of a family park without any damage done at all. I would prefer that to be honest, families are so much better than most UK teens, who have little/no appreciation of a good theme park.
 
Rick said:
They might see the building, but I am not sure they will walk past it - it's hardly centre stage since Storm Surge was plonked in front of it.
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That's true about SS but looks like they're bringing X's presence forward to position it as a headline attraction again, and it's one you'll reach before Colossus or Inferno (and arguably Swarm since that's a bit out of the way).

Either way having a park where your general impression is of dirtied-up buildings, junk vehicles and patchwork tarmac isnt good in the long run. Thorpe Park used to be a very fresh and exciting place, which delivered really successfully for both thrill and family audiences. It's got so confused now, the average day out is extremely mixed and poor value in my opinion.

X was a flop because the original design wasn't very maintainable and the coaster dated, so it's ripe for a big change, but surely this will only add to the park's mismatched offering and long term problems?
 
This meme says it all...

BrainUKcoasters.png
 
This ride feels like the park has done a bit of soul searching. A decade ago with Saw they introduced a (fairly) unremarkable rollercoaster with a similar theme and it was a smash hit.

A couple of years back they tried something massively complicated and expensive that wasn't well received.

Now they have the opportunity to do something tried and tested at a fraction of the cost. Meanwhile, this is in line with the broader strategy (use of a proven IP and the refreshment of an underutilised asset).

In terms of the confusing/changing target audience - I think there is still an element of experimentation in their approach. Thrills are going to remain the park's key draw, but if you can compliment your key market with (big spending) families without undermining your investments down the road, why wouldn't you?

Merlin's cluster of theme parks hasn't really been done before outside of a resort setting (successfully anyway - SDC & CC failed) - there isn't a tried and tested model to follow.
 
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They tried and tested Alton Towers' total repositioning in the market and improvement of quality in the 90s, while remaining a very creative and original park. Was very successful particularly the early to mid 90s. That was far from the incredible mismatch and 'big promotion - cheap product' formula with whichever IP going, like they have now for Thorpe Park.
 
15 out of 10 on the scare scale? Oh dear. As I hate anything with scare actors... yeah I'm not riding that when we go in 2018! Good thing I already got the cred in 2014 when it was X!

It is just baffling to me that they want to retheme a family ride to a 15 certificate TV show. They're basically reversing what they did in 2013. Is it just me, or does this whole project make no sense at all? While Alton have been wowing us with Wicker Man, Thorpe comes out with this. While admittedly, it isn't Thorpe's year for a major investment, it is rather confusing as to why they've done it.

On a more positive note, however, Thorpe are probably going to wow us with the ride's experience aspect if Wicker Man is anything to go by. AMC probably have high standards, also, so it should be amazing. Might be almost Disney-level!
 
venny said:
These artist’s impressions are usually heavily embellished from what the final product ends up looking like.

This embellished version literally just shows a tatty fence around X, so how bad is the actual finished product going to be?
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Think saw live I would guess
 
I'm looking forward to hearing the explanation why the coaster is going to be taking place in a building that has giant X on it. Guess X marks the spot of the safe zone :)
 
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