Merlin have just registered 'Skybound'. It can be a new flat when it isn't being used to fix Hyperia.
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[2024] Thorpe Park: Hyperia - Mack Hypercoaster
- Thread starter Burbs
- Start date
Merlin have just registered 'Skybound'. It can be a new flat when it isn't being used to fix Hyperia.
Skyscraper
TS Member
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- Nemesis
Looking at the footage again, the train was empty. It would have probably made it over if water dummies had been in. 
It depends if you like 'em or not. I just told my noisey neighbour that it's running really well.
Rob
TS Team
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- Steel Vengeance
On Saturday the morning testing regime was as follows:Looking at the footage again, the train was empty. It would have probably made it over if water dummies had been in.
- Test with 4 rows or so having full water dummies in them. A few circuits per train
- Send the trains round with the caps taken off the water dummies, to release the water. This appeared to happen twice for each train
- Send empty trains round
GooseOnTheLoose
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That crane was parked pretty much in that same spot last week, I recall seeing it on the re-opening day, or at least a green crane generally. It was in-between Saw and Hyperia. I didn't think to take a snap of it.
Matt N
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- Shambhala (PortAventura Park)
Under normal circumstances, they are. Hyperia is not touch and go under normal circumstances, and I think yesterday’s stall was just caused by a very unfortunate set of circumstances creating a perfect storm.
Manchester1894
TS Member
They'll be looking at every part of that train for any sign of issue. One wheel issue I imagine is enough to throw this out of kilter.
Islander
TS Member
But, from what a lot of people are saying, it is?
A lot of people are saying that it always crawls over that first hill when the train is empty, and few seem surprised that it stalled
Matt N
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- Shambhala (PortAventura Park)
On a side note, is it only me now getting mildly concerned that Hyperia might be another commercial flop for the park?
It’s been reviewed extremely well and seems to have drawn people in, but I worry that the unreliability might colour its success in the eyes of the higher ups. Thorpe Park really needed this ride to be a commercial success, and thus far, its unreliability has made that difficult simply due to how little it has operated in its first month.
Am I right to be concerned, or do you think it’s too soon to be concerned? Part of me thinks that nothing that’s happened with Hyperia is overly unusual for a new ride aside from the extended closure, but the other part of me worries that this period of unreliability will permanently taint its reputation in the age of omnipresent social media.
It’s been reviewed extremely well and seems to have drawn people in, but I worry that the unreliability might colour its success in the eyes of the higher ups. Thorpe Park really needed this ride to be a commercial success, and thus far, its unreliability has made that difficult simply due to how little it has operated in its first month.
Am I right to be concerned, or do you think it’s too soon to be concerned? Part of me thinks that nothing that’s happened with Hyperia is overly unusual for a new ride aside from the extended closure, but the other part of me worries that this period of unreliability will permanently taint its reputation in the age of omnipresent social media.
Mykeprime
TS Member
I have wondered how much the current unreliability will stick to it's reputation for the general public. Like how Smiler is 'That ride that crashed'. Hyperia may already be 'That ride that doesn't work'.
GooseOnTheLoose
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I'm going to argue with the premise of the question, who'd have guessed?
A commercial flop would suggest that the ride generates a direct income. You buy tickets to go and watch a film, or a concert, or a play. Whether tickets are sold would dictate whether the play, film or concert is a commercial success.
You don't buy tickets for Hyperia. You buy tickets for Thorpe Park. Hyperia is an investment for the park, to entice more people to visit, or people to revisit. Whether tickets are sold would dictate whether Thorpe Park is a commercial success, but not the ride.
"Are you concerned that Hyperia is a long/short term bad investment for the park?" is a far more nuanced question.
I still think it's too early to tell. If it's still having major issues by the summer holidays, with increased periods of long down time, then I might revisit my newly proposed question.
We exist in an echo chamber, the kind that convinced ourselves that Remain were going to win in 2016, or that Trump couldn't ever win. We feed into each other's interest and worries about the parks.
Is Hyperia a bad investment for the casual visitor? I don't think so. It's still the tallest and fastest, it's just not working yet. It's frustrating. People will still visit.
Is Hyperia a bad short term investment for the enthusiast community? Yes. Lots of people are staying away from the park until Hyperia is up and running again, they're delaying trips.
Does the enthusiast community have much of an influence on Thorpe Park's bottom line? Interesting question. If they're using a MAP / TPAP, don't pay for merch (or pay less) and only take a packed lunch, then it's possible they have more of a detrimental effect on the park than Hyperia not operating.
Matt N
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Shambhala (PortAventura Park)
It should be remembered that Smiler itself had its fair share of problems in opening year, what with it stalling twice within the space of a week in its opening month, shedding guide wheels, having footers cracking, and shedding bolts all within 2013, with each of the above incidents resulting in a closure of multiple days. Nobody ever remembers that these incidents happened, and they were forgotten quite quickly after they did. The crash was remembered for longer, but that was a major news story at the time and critically injured 4 people. And even that did not colour the ride’s popularity among park guests in the long term, and Alton mostly recovered from it by the end of the 2010s.
My worry, though, is that when Smiler had these issues, we didn’t live in a world with omnipresent, instantaneous social media at our fingertips. Social media whips everyone up into a frenzy, makes theories breed, makes rhetoric breed, and makes people forget these sorts of things less easily. My concern is that these initial problems with Hyperia may be remembered more easily than the problems with earlier rides and could colour its reputation long-term.
Rightly or wrongly, Merlin will assess Hyperia on whether it was a commercial success eventually. With Saw, it was widely deemed to have been a commercial success, and with Swarm and DBGT, they were widely deemed to have been commercial failures. They tend to use measures like whether a ride’s opening year saw raised attendance, or whether it increased profit share. It’s crude, and doesn’t account for other factors, but it’s what they do.
I fear that if Hyperia doesn’t settle down soon, it may “fail” like Swarm and DBGT did.
It could absolutely be the case that some of these problems would have happened in May half term rather than now had we not had the initial extended closure, with the closure simply pushing back the teething problem part and giving off the illusion that the ride is more unreliable than it is. But I am concerned that if this is one of an ongoing litany of problems, it could colour the ride’s commercial success.
AT86
TS Member
I think it’s too soon to tell. The likelihood is this will all be forgotten soon. However if this drags into the summer with continued unreliability and that puts off people visiting it won’t help matters.
The other consideration is that the Varney era of Merlin which was on the stock market that needed to prove immediate return on investment for each new ride is no more. They can afford to take a more medium/long term approach so there is more leeway in that regard.
The other consideration is that the Varney era of Merlin which was on the stock market that needed to prove immediate return on investment for each new ride is no more. They can afford to take a more medium/long term approach so there is more leeway in that regard.
GooseOnTheLoose
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We definitely had omnipresent, instantaneous social media at our fingertips when The Smiler had its issues and crash but, pulling the age card a little, I think you were just about too young to be whipped into all of it (or could have been sheltered from it).
This is how private/public Merlin used to work, we don't yet know how "new" Merlin assess its investments.
Benzin
TS Member
Smiler was absolutely everywhere after the crash. Few videos of it were online shortly afterwards as well.
Was a very "interesting" afternoon at work that day.
If the operator were to deem it a "commercial failure" at this point then short-termism still reigns and as we saw over the past decade that never worked for Thorpe. Then again I'm not surprised since things elsewhere get called a failure because they spent £50 million and it only made £5 million on profit.
Was a very "interesting" afternoon at work that day.
If the operator were to deem it a "commercial failure" at this point then short-termism still reigns and as we saw over the past decade that never worked for Thorpe. Then again I'm not surprised since things elsewhere get called a failure because they spent £50 million and it only made £5 million on profit.
Matt N
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- Shambhala (PortAventura Park)
I’m aware that things like Twitter existed and were used when Smiler opened… but it does feel like it wasn’t quite such a big beast back in 2013 as it is today. Perhaps I was sheltered from it a bit by virtue of age, and I think you’re fair in suggesting that, but having been on these forums since 2017, it feels like Twitter and such have proliferated to a new and ridiculous degree in the last 5 years or so in a way that they hadn’t in 2013.
As an example, you’re commonly seeing Twitter as a source in a way I don’t remember in the years gone by. When I first started reading and even first joined the forums, sites like Screamscape were still the most common source for “inside” information and scoop on things, whereas Screamscape seems to have faded into obscurity a bit these days with different Twitter users becoming more prominent for that sort of thing.
And in general, it feels like you get a lot more “trial by Twitter”, hysteria and theories and rhetoric being whipped up on social media now than you did even just a few years ago.
That’s just my perspective, though; I could be wrong.
This is a good point. “New” Merlin may assess investments differently, particularly in the absence of Nick Varney.