The Swarm: Brave it Backwards

[Secret Weapon]

But you do.
Any relevance to the Swarm, Brave it Backwards?

I'd say yes, as it may have contributed towards the decision to remove Brave it Backwards in 2016.

Granted: Brave it Backwards may have been removed at some stage anyway, but the fact that it was specifically removed in 2016 rather than 2017 or later may have have been due to the larger operational, safety, and staff cutbacks that were made across Merlin around that time period.

Plus the near misses were far less effective when going backwards!

Maybe it's just me, but 'near misses' and head chopper elements never had much effect on me - especially after the initial ride - as I know that the ride has already been engineered to be safe enough, and thus I never really feel like I'm in any danger!

Funnily enough: on the subject of Brave it Backwards, the only time that a near miss actually felt somewhat dangerous is actually when I ended up facing backwards on Enso at Blackpool, as I remember instinctively pulling my legs in as the ride passed under Steeplechase while I was facing backwards / sideways as I couldn't see ahead and wasn't certain that I'd clear it !

I was thinking it seemed like X No Way Out, Indiana Jones and The Jester (Six Flags New Orleans) were all clearly designed to go forwards but went backwards instead.

I hadn't considered that; is there a specific layout or feature that is unique to a backwards-facing ride? I haven't ridden enough of them to know!

 

[Bowser]

I'm never really a fan of parks running coasters that were designed to go forwards backwards, or going backwards full stop

Same. Especially if wearing lapbars, it’s inherently uncomfortable having forces push you forward without support. I remember Thunder Looper almost snapping me in two when i attempted arms up.

Mandril works because the vests provide support and the ride itself is smooth so i assume Swarm wouldn’t have been uncomfortable in that regard.

 

[Secret Weapon]

Mandril works because the vests provide support and the ride itself is smooth so i assume Swarm wouldn’t have been uncomfortable in that regard.

I suppose the other difference is that Mandrill Mayhem is a launched coaster and thus doesn't have a long inclined lift hill as well.

 

[owenstreet7]

Butter wings. Edited and corrected. Thanks for pointing it out!

It could be even shorter now considering Chessington and Minecraft. Like about 18 months to two years

It seems to be nearly certain it's an Intamin Multi Dimension coaster although there is a slim chance it may be an ART Engineering coaster like Galacticoaster.

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

I'd say yes, as it may have contributed towards the decision to remove Brave it Backwards in 2016.

Granted: Brave it Backwards may have been removed at some stage anyway, but the fact that it was specifically removed in 2016 rather than 2017 or later may have have been due to the larger operational, safety, and staff cutbacks that were made across Merlin around that time period.


Maybe it's just me, but 'near misses' and head chopper elements never had much effect on me - especially after the initial ride - as I know that the ride has already been engineered to be safe enough, and thus I never really feel like I'm in any danger!

Funnily enough: on the subject of Brave it Backwards, the only time that a near miss actually felt somewhat dangerous is actually when I ended up facing backwards on Enso at Blackpool, as I remember instinctively pulling my legs in as the ride passed under Steeplechase while I was facing backwards / sideways as I couldn't see ahead and wasn't certain that I'd clear it !


I hadn't considered that; is there a specific layout or feature that is unique to a backwards-facing ride? I haven't ridden enough of them to know!

I must confess, I was starting to worry we might actually start a fresh page of discussion without you attributing a routine park maintenance decision to the 2015 incident. Perhaps we need to introduce "Secret Weapon's Law" to the list of inevitable forum adages.

If we're to truly embrace the Secret Weapon True Crime Cinematic Universe®, I feel your analysis of the 2016 seat rotation doesn't go quite far enough. Why stop at generic corporate cutbacks and safety concerns when we can find a much more gruesome, historically infamous parallel?

Surely, the removal of Brave it Backwards is the operational equivalent of the Kray Twins dealing with Jack "The Hat" McVitie?

Think about it. The backward seats were the rogue element... messy, unpredictable and causing a massive headache for the ruling establishment (the station batcher). They were slowing down the entire operation and regularly leaving unsavoury physical evidence (protein spills) all over the floor. Merlin, acting with the ruthless efficiency of Ronnie Kray, realised the situation was untenable. Under the cover of the closed season, they dragged the rogue seats into the maintenance shed, "sorted them out", and turned them back around to ensure everyone kept their mouths shut and looked straight ahead. It's a cover up of East End proportions! Back in the cold, unromantic reality of the real world, however...

It was just a marketing gimmick which had reached the end of its natural lifespan. It wasn't very good and it was a pain for operations.

It really is that simple.

 

[Secret Weapon]

Drayton Manor allowed people to ride Shockwave backwards (see links below), but I suppose the difference in this case is that it didn't require any special adjustments to the seats and so any seat could essentially be used as a backwards seat!

(These images remind me of Tom Green's "Backwards Man")

It's a good job that Shockwave used a smooth B&M style track, because this could have been very painful on a mid-90s Vekoma...

https://www.bannister.org/coasters/trips/2002/0718sw.jpg

https://www.themeparkreview.com/eco/drayton/drayton3.jpg

 

[Secret Weapon]

It’s just come to my attention that Dolly Parton built a B&M wing coaster at the same time as The Swarm in 2012, and I think that Six Flags did as well.

However: unlike The Swarm, neither of those rides ever featured backwards seats, and I don’t think any other B&M wing coaster until Mandrill Mayhem in 2023 did, either (although I may be wrong).

Merlin allegedly did “Brave it Backwards” in 2013 because The Swarm apparently failed to boost Thorpe Park’s attendance in 2012, and Merlin then went so far as to say that they would never build another wing coaster as a result (which turned out to be false).

However: I find this conclusion very strange, given that:-

(A) Merlin’s other B&M wing coaster (Raptor in Italy in 2011) was apparently a success (according to “Making Thorpe Park”), so surely Merlin should have realised (even at the time) that the wing concept itself can’t be to blame for poor attendance in Britain?

(B) The fact that Raptor and Dolly Parton never had to resort to backwards seats surely shows that it was a problem that was specific to Thorpe Park?

(C) John Wardley described “Brave it Backwards” as “desperate”, and Nick Varney allegedly said something similar, but this is ironic, given that Merlin would not only later revisit the concept of backwards wing seats for Mandrill Mayhem, but would in fact be the only park operator to do so

It’s also just come to my attention that B&M began introducing backwards-facing seats on some of their other rides in 2013 as well (although not wing coasters) – such as the inverted Batman rides in the USA – and so perhaps “Brave it Backwards” was simply a suggestion from B&M, rather than a specific request from Thorpe Park? (or perhaps Thorpe Park were simply taking inspiration from overseas)

INCIDENTALLY: most of the Batman clones abandoned their backwards-facing seats at the end of 2015 (along with The Swarm), but some continued until mid-2018 (e.g. St. Louis); I find these particular dates interesting, as they tend to support both theories that were discussed in this thread earlier this week:-

(A) The backwards seats on The Swarm were inevitably only ever temporary, and were possibly destined to end along with most of the Batman rides at the end of 2015, anyway (the theory put forward by @GooseOnTheLoose et al)

(B) “Brave it Backwards” may in fact have run until 2018 if not for the staffing cuts made across Merlin following the accident in 2015 (the theory put forward by myself)

If “Brave it Backwards” had somehow made it until 2021 or so, I’m not sure what effect COVID would have had upon the operations; having some seats facing away from others may have helped with social distancing, but – equally – it may have made the operations even more complicated!

 

[Bowser]

John Wardley described “Brave it Backwards” as “desperate”, and Nick Varney allegedly said something similar, but this is ironic, given that Merlin would not only later revisit the concept of backwards wing seats for Mandrill Mayhem, but would in fact be the only park operator to do so

The backwards seats on Mandrill are completely logical though due to it being a boomerang. They're the only operator to do so because it's the only boomerang B&M Wing coaster.

I don't want to hassle the man in his retirement with further emails from Tower Street discussions but i'm sure Mr Wardley would agree they were an excellent decision in this context.

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

(C) John Wardley described “Brave it Backwards” as “desperate”, and Nick Varney allegedly said something similar, but this is ironic, given that Merlin would not only later revisit the concept of backwards wing seats for Mandrill Mayhem, but would in fact be the only park operator to do so

As has already been explained, Mandrill Mayhem is a boomerang coaster. You literally always have "backwards seats", no matter which direction you're going in... that's what boomerang coasters do.

As for the rest and the "what ifs", you now have your own thread for that...

The Secret Weapon Cinematic Multiverse®

I have taken the liberty of establishing this dedicated imaginative sandbox to house the ever expanding alternate timelines, operational fan fiction, and sprawling hypothetical scenarios that have begun bleeding into our regular discourse. Please wipe your feet, leave your grip on reality at...

towersstreet.com

 

[pluk]

Thorpe put in brave it backwards as a temporary measure to try to eke out another couple of years of marketing and footfall off the back of their investment which at that point they considered to have under performed. It was always supposed to be temporary, it came with queue line and operational faff that was no surprise to them but they thought worth it for the marketing value short term. Once it had served that purpose and was no longer considerd new or a draw it was put back to normal, as it had always planned to be.

There is no conspiracy or reasoning beyond this.

 

[Secret Weapon]

All of that is probably true!

I wonder what metric Thorpe Park used to determine that the ride had underperformed; I assume they were referring to the park's attendance as a whole, rather than the number of people buying Fast-track tickets for that ride specifically (versus other rides in the park) ?

I found a photograph on YouTube of the queue board when Brave it Backwards was running (see link below), and it seems like the queue for The Swarm was actually one of the longest of the day, at around 70 minutes forwards and 30 minutes backwards (although not all of the rides are shown), which suggests that the ride itself was quite popular (amongst people in the park, at least) when it first launched?

If so, then they theoretically could have actually added the backwards seat to their other B&M ride instead (Nemesis Inferno), as it doesn't seem like The Swarm itself necessarily needed 'saving' * (if the park wanted a boost then it may have made more sense to breathe new life into an older ride instead), and - as mentioned above - modifying an invert rather than a wing would have matched what was being done to the Batman rides overseas, anyway.

*The modifications made to the Ghost Train in 2017 (Rise of the Demon) were different (and perhaps necessary), because the complaints about Ghost Train were specifically regarding the ride experience itself, whereas I believe most of the complaints regarding The Swarm came from Merlin's unhappiness with guest attendance in the park as a whole rather than guests complaining about the ride specifically? (Other than the slightly short duration)

I know that the billboard near-miss element was also added in 2013, as well - presumably in another attempt to enhance (or 'salvage') the ride.

EDIT / UPDATE: Somebody had previously said that The Swarm failed to boost Thorpe Park's attendance in 2012 because of bad weather and the 'mistake' of launching alongside the London Olympics (I can't currently find the relevant post, though) - but, according to the "Making Thorpe Park" book, Thorpe Park actually intentionally opened the ride at the same time as the Olympics, as they had anticipated a huge influx of overseas visitors to London due to the Olympics, and, thus, they thought that it would be a help rather than a hindrance; for what it's worth, I actually agree with Thorpe Park's logic on this and so I probably would have made the same decision as well. Looking at it through this lens, I can kind of also understand why they chose a wing coaster rather than a hyper coaster, because - although a hyper coaster is impressive for the UK audience - it is unlikely to impress visitors from America (and perhaps even continental Europe), who have already seen much larger coasters in their home countries; granted, there were also wing coasters in Dollywood and Gardaland around the same time, but they were still relatively rare at the time.

Also: the idea that the flat land of Thorpe Park was poorly suited to the 'near miss' elements of a wing coaster is partly true, but you could say the same about Nemesis Inferno and that it lacked the 'foot chopper' moments of the original Nemesis ride at Alton Towers.

Screenshot 20240612 014948 You Tube hosted at ImgBB

Image Screenshot 20240612 014948 You Tube hosted on ImgBB

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