You clearly haven’t seen all the fearless 9 year olds riding Nemesis which is one of the most intense rides in the country. It doesn’t phase them!
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ℹ️ Heads up...
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[2024] Thorpe Park: Hyperia - Mack Hypercoaster
- Thread starter Burbs
- Start date
They certainly don’t have marketing campaigns anywhere near the scale that towers do
Yes but with this being the UK's new tallest coaster it shouldn't exactly be a difficult thing to sell? If anything it seems pretty straight forward, you'd think there would be ads all over the place by now but I've seen nothing.
Matt N
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Mako (SeaWorld Orlando)
I think it’s still early days on the advertising front. They probably don’t want to shout from the rooftops now in case people either visit thinking it’s already open or hold off their visit until after 24th May.
I’d imagine we might see more closer to the ride’s opening.
Apparently there are adverts being shown in places more locally as well. For instance, they’re showing adverts in shopping malls and things in the South East.
Appeared in the many Thorpe Hyperia hotel room vlogs and credit to the poster below
From: https://x.com/JAXXNCREATED/status/1773662053992931587?s=20
From: https://x.com/JAXXNCREATED/status/1773662053992931587?s=20
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Tim
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Air / Blue Fire
That shares a lot of similarities to the story of Icarus 
just without the hubris of flying too close to the sun.
Both start with the hero trapped on an island and building a set of wings to escape.
... having thought about it building a set of wings to escape an island could be a good analogy for a day at Thorpe Park as well.
just without the hubris of flying too close to the sun.Both start with the hero trapped on an island and building a set of wings to escape.
... having thought about it building a set of wings to escape an island could be a good analogy for a day at Thorpe Park as well.
The 1.3m ride height for Hyperia worries me. Even more than the badly designed layout. When a ride is designed the manufacturers give the park a minimum height requirement and the park can decide to go with that or use their own discretion and enforce a taller requirement. A lot of things will go into the decision guiding that minimum height requirement, but not everything can be fully accounted for.
The first factor is obviously the restraint system. A manufacturer will have all tested their restraint systems extensively and they will have a good idea of what the minimum height can be for riders that won't see them exiting the train before they arrive back at the station. Looking up to see 20+ kids raining from the sky, before they plough into the concreted ground, won't play very well with people inside and outside the park. I'm certain we will never hear, " Look at the little one, did you see how far he bounced before he was impaled on the safety railings " being conveyed in a gleeful manner.
However, different body shapes can be harder to account for. Plus size people can be a problem if they try to force themselves into the restraints or the restraints aren't fully locked to accommodate them. This should never happen, but sadly it sometimes does. Generally speaking the manufacturer will set a weight limit and the ride staff will be alert for people of a size that will test the restraints.
For me, the bigger problems are with the smaller people, especially children. People with very slight frames can sometimes slip through the restraints if that last click hasn't been achieved. In respect to young children an even greater range of factors comes into play. Small children don't have the muscle mass and the core stability of older riders.
I've watched kids on RMC coasters, with their 48" or 1.2m height restrictions, being thrown around like rag dolls. Granted, they are enjoying every single moment of their ride, but the forces that their bodies are being subjected to are extreme. It doesn't take very much to cause whiplash or damage to developing bones and joints, not to mention the stress that greying out can put on a person.
A different set of factors can affect older and more frail people. It is very well known in the coaster community that the older you get the less resilient you are to the demands placed on the body by a coaster ride. It can take you longer to recover from an intense ride, your heart can be more prone to giving out and those brittle bones can't take the forces a young and healthy body can.
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And yet, despite all of this Granny Brittle Bones and Jenifer Bobble Head can both queue up and ride Hyperia safe in the knowledge that nothing negative will affect them because they are 1.3m tall. I'm exaggerating a bit here, because most rides have safety disclaimers on the signage that covers things like a dicky ticker and so. Although, following all of these advisory warnings are completely up to the riders discretion and sadly eager riders are not immune to making some very bad decisions.
I can imagine that the riders of Hyperia will experience some pretty intense G-Forces at the bottom of that first twisting drop. Far more than I would be happy exposing an 8 year old kid too, which is the average age of somebody 1.3m in height.
Some of the points made previously in this thread should be enough to raise questions about a 1.3m height rating for this ride. If 8 year olds are allowed to go on the tallest, fastest roller coaster in the country how can you subsequently tell them that they can't go on the swarm which is less extreme. Nobody will be able to placate them with the argument that it is down to the train configuration, because they will have seen the same trains on Mandril Mayhem. Kids might be small, but they aren't daft.
The perceived disparity and unfairness will makes no sense to them. Just like it makes no sense to me. Putting such a situation into play will probably lead to confusion, disappointment and a lot of tears before bedtime. And that is just the ride operatives, imagine how the kids will feel.
On the other hand if the forces in play aren't that really great then it will act to refute the marketing blurb that Hyperia is the most extreme coaster in the country.
Will you Face your Fearless and take your seat on a ride designed for 8 year olds ?
Okay, I'm worried, but I think I can handle it, I need a transition point to help me build up to the Telly Tubbies boat ride.
If I had to guess then I would say that the park have gone for the lowest ride height possible instead of exercising a bit of caution. The lower that a ride height is set at the more people can ride and the more people who can ride Hyperia the more people they can pull into the park. It could be a simple case of placing an emphasis on visitor numbers and profits instead of being sensible. The sort of decision that marketeers and money counters would make, but safety conscious people wouldn't.
Just because a park can do something it doesn't mean that it should do something. I would be a lot happier if Hyperia had a 1.4m rider height limit.
Are there any examples anywhere of someone falling out of a Mack coaster?
Matt.GC
TS Member
"Hyperia then DECIDED she should have gone for a WEE before she left. Her deepest FEAR was no longer the WATER that surrounded her, but the liquid that would SOON be trickling down her legs. So she quickly abandoned her FEARLESS flight only SECONDS after embarkation, slammed into a BRAKE run, and relieved herself post haste. Afterwards, she stood in front of a still quite obviously western themed BURGER King, looked over her ISLAND, and found that she had a sudden compulsion to light up a CIGARETTE for some subliminal reason".
Not mack, only ones that come to mind are intamin or where a harness had been tampered my the parks tech teams
Benzin
TS Member
Or a double amputee who INSISTED he would ride because he was a VETERAN.
That "lore" pretty much sounds like the original ride name was going to be Ikarus. Then they tried to be "original" with the theme by changing the name and a few story details.
I guess the fan boys will adore it.
You are on the Thorpe Park topic of a rollercoaster forum.
The comment is fair and true.
Should we all stop discussing a relevant, fair point?
Or perhaps you should look elsewhere for a while, instead of a topic about a brand new, tall but short coaster...
It is short, it would probably be better if it was about double the length.
Possibly boring, but true, in the right topic, for people who want to share a discussion.
Matt N
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Mako (SeaWorld Orlando)
Not to my knowledge, no.
This could be a sweeping generalisation, and I apologise if it is, but I’d also say that on the (rare) occasion you hear about that kind of incident, it often tends to be larger people who struggled to get the restraint closed rather than small children slipping out.
If I’m remembering rightly, the person who fell out of the Orlando Freefall did so because they exceeded the manufacturer weight limit and Icon Park had tampered with the restraints to allow larger guests to ride.
The person who fell out of the Texas Giant was a larger person who had been unable to get their restraint properly closed.
You also incidents like the one on Ride of Steel at Darien Lake (?) where the victim was a double amputee and thus unable to get the lap bar to secure them properly.
Of the incidents of people falling out of rides, restraint failures are quite rare (to my memory, the only restraint failures I can think of came from Intamin in the 2000s), and I’m struggling to think of any incident like this that has entailed a small child “slipping through” a restraint. Although if anyone knows of one, I’m willing to stand corrected.
Bowser
TS Member
Yeah i don't really see how it's physically possible on most restraints. Beyond fault and the harness opening, you'd have to make a concerted prolonged effort to slip out.
Tim
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Air / Blue Fire
Discussing the restraints safety is a moot point, because its based on speculation that isn't true.
Ride restraints don't mysterious pop open, no more than plains constantly fall out the sky. Incidences are incredibly rare and always due to human error or negligence.
Neither are their frequent cases of whiplash. This occurs when there is a sudden unexpected impact. Not on a smooth, well designed modern coaster. You're more likely to hurt yourself on a smaller, older, or rough kids coaster. Which is why so many people are put off riding the big rides after a bad experience on something far tamer, but rougher.
Present evidence of Mack restraints actually being a risk and I'll take this point seriously. They've built multiple hyper coasters with this ride system already, all (to my knowledge) have a 1.3m height restriction, and no reports of 'kids falling from the sky'
Ride restraints don't mysterious pop open, no more than plains constantly fall out the sky. Incidences are incredibly rare and always due to human error or negligence.
Neither are their frequent cases of whiplash. This occurs when there is a sudden unexpected impact. Not on a smooth, well designed modern coaster. You're more likely to hurt yourself on a smaller, older, or rough kids coaster. Which is why so many people are put off riding the big rides after a bad experience on something far tamer, but rougher.
Present evidence of Mack restraints actually being a risk and I'll take this point seriously. They've built multiple hyper coasters with this ride system already, all (to my knowledge) have a 1.3m height restriction, and no reports of 'kids falling from the sky'
KolonelKlink
TS Member
When no-one has anything new or interesting to add to this particular point? I’d say so - there’s plenty to talk about Hyperia now the park’s open again and people can get a good look at it, but the “it’s short” chat has been going on ever since the layout appeared in the planning application and - guess what - no-one’s whinging has made the slightest bit of difference!
It really is the height of tedium - if you’re that bothered, email the divisional director and see how many hoots they give.