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[2024] Thorpe Park: Hyperia - Mack Hypercoaster

James Watkins said:
Interesting findings on the trademark office...

The names 'Icarus' and 'Hyperia' have been filed by a company called 'Vista Maxima Services LTD'. From what I understand, they file trademarks for other companies during early development stages? Can anyone more knowledgeable enlighten me if this is a thing?

The names have been filed with the exact usage classes of 25, 35 and 41 (for merch, advertising and amusement parks) that Merlin uses and is using the same IPO representative of 'Lane IP' that Merlin always uses. Surely this can't all be a coincidence?

Would be a shame if Icarus has indeed been opposed, as that would have been my preferred pick!


From: https://twitter.com/jaystocky/status/1691914178989310284


From: https://twitter.com/owenjcornelius/status/1691923496715083892
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I suppose you can't really trademark a greek god though
 
I feel the marketing team over at Thorpe Park could learn a lot from their counterparts at Alton Towers. They are about to break ground on the tallest and fastest coaster in the UK! and yet I have to keep reminding myself they are even working on a major new ride.

Meanwhile at Alton Towers I'm checking in daily to watch the progress on a ride that I already know what it'll look like because it's been there for nearly 30 years!

Historically this seems to have always been the case as well. I've frequently watched videos of "best British adverts of all time" and seen all of Alton's major coasters featured. The only ride at Thorpe I remember getting some decent build-up behind it was The Swarm. And even then I seem to remember they went quite for months and then just revealed almost everything about the ride.
Where's the mystery, and the intrigue?
 
Tim said:
I feel the marketing team over at Thorpe Park could learn a lot from their counterparts at Alton Towers. They are about to break ground on the tallest and fastest coaster in the UK! and yet I have to keep reminding myself they are even working on a major new ride.

Meanwhile at Alton Towers I'm checking in daily to watch the progress on a ride that I already know what it'll look like because it's been there for nearly 30 years!

Historically this seems to have always been the case as well. I've frequently watched videos of "best British adverts of all time" and seen all of Alton's major coasters featured. The only ride at Thorpe I remember getting some decent build-up behind it was The Swarm. And even then I seem to remember they went quite for months and then just revealed almost everything about the ride.
Where's the mystery, and the intrigue?
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Nemesis Inferno had a good TV advert which was shown very regularly...


From: https://youtu.be/LC7lwoR7E9w


Stealth had an advert but it was rubbish and forgettable. Was not shown often and I don't think it lasted very long.

Thorpe always had TV ads in the 90s and 00s but they were always more focussed on the overall park rather than individual attractions.

Towers coaster specific adverts are definitely more iconic.
 
Tim said:
I feel the marketing team over at Thorpe Park could learn a lot from their counterparts at Alton Towers. They are about to break ground on the tallest and fastest coaster in the UK! and yet I have to keep reminding myself they are even working on a major new ride.

Meanwhile at Alton Towers I'm checking in daily to watch the progress on a ride that I already know what it'll look like because it's been there for nearly 30 years!

Historically this seems to have always been the case as well. I've frequently watched videos of "best British adverts of all time" and seen all of Alton's major coasters featured. The only ride at Thorpe I remember getting some decent build-up behind it was The Swarm. And even then I seem to remember they went quite for months and then just revealed almost everything about the ride.
Where's the mystery, and the intrigue?
Click to expand...
In fairness, Alton Towers don’t normally start major build up on their new rides until this sort of stage either. If I’m remembering correctly, I believe Wicker Man didn’t start having a proper build up until August or so, and Smiler didn’t either.

I think Nemesis is slightly different, because when the ride closed in November 2022, it was always known that the ride would be returning.

Thorpe Park technically announced that they were building the UK’s tallest roller coaster some months ago now, and they’ve even had a silhouette of the layout on the park map all year. I think this is simply the start of the proper build up.
 
Thorpe rightly kept new coaster talk low key with videos targeted at fans and in park advertising. Plus letting vloggers do construction updates.
Announcing it properly too early could've effected attendance this year as people may have put off trips to wait. Now mid summer were they'll be busy, and with popular Oktoberfest and Fright Night events to come that people will want to attend regardless they've pulled the trigger on starting the marketing build.
 
If you go too big on next year's thing too early you can end up damaging your gate for this year, with potential customers deciding to wait it out instead of visiting now.

Nemesis is different because the closure had to be part of the build up to opening.
 
I'm not even talking big though. Little teasers, banners on construction fences, hints that something is coming.

For another example Voltron is opening next year and long before construction started we had hints in the preview centre, behind the scenes updates, references to Croatia.
I know it was originally meant to open this year, and that some of the marketing started before they announced the delay. But even so there was build-up this time last year.
 
The summer holidays are one of the busiest periods of the year - so it really baffles me that there is pretty much nothing announced on-site or online (apart from a rather bland 30-second teaser video).

You need to get people excited about it, tell them whilst they are visiting. You'll have potentially hundreds of thousands of guests passing through the gates over the summer, so tell them about it!
 
joelpagett said:
The summer holidays are one of the busiest periods of the year - so it really baffles me that there is pretty much nothing announced on-site or online (apart from a rather bland 30-second teaser video).

You need to get people excited about it, tell them whilst they are visiting. You'll have potentially hundreds of thousands of guests passing through the gates over the summer, so tell them about it!
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Probably relying on the free publicity generated by the numerous vloggers covering it, like Jack Silkstone - I can't believe he is on update 34 or 35 and they haven't even got a support in the ground yet! Who would pay for advertising when you have that kind of coverage!
 
Steve74 said:
Probably relying on the free publicity generated by the numerous vloggers covering it, like Jack Silkstone - I can't believe he is on update 34 or 35 and they haven't even got a support in the ground yet! Who would pay for advertising when you have that kind of coverage!
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That's true but the thing is the only people who are going to know about Jack Silkstone and all the others are people in the coaster community, and most of us have known about exodus for a while now. Other merlin projects haven't had the name reveal this early on, my guess it will either be around fright night or January/February next year.
 
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I like how the model has captured the majesty of the brake run perfectly, showing how it runs most of the length of the ride area. It shows just how much room is left on the site to build more elements to make use of the enormous speed it will be carrying by the time it reaches that final turn.
 
John_P said:
On ride POV released by the park


From: https://youtu.be/q5sXGlEwmzg
And a web page for the attraction

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The post-lift hill section of the video is the same length as the lift hill and pre-lift section. It does just feel like a short ride considering how much speed it starts with. Also the best elements are probably the non-inverting ones. Just makes me wish a UK park would make a decent non-inverting hypercoaster instead.
 
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