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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: General Discussion

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Dipper_Dave said:
I haven't got Wild Mouse wood yet! I've trimmed down my collection of ride parts after going berserk early last season.
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There was one piece of Wild Mouse wood left in the Flying Machines shop when I went in on the first day of the season. It had been snapped up before I left. By me.

Interestingly it came with a plaque declaring that the Wild Mouse was one of only three surviving rides of its type in the world. I’m guessing they ordered a job lot of them a while ago...
 
venny said:
There was one piece of Wild Mouse wood left in the Flying Machines shop when I went in on the first day of the season. It had been snapped up before I left. By me.

Interestingly it came with a plaque declaring that the Wild Mouse was one of only three surviving rides of its type in the world. I’m guessing they ordered a job lot of them a while ago...
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There were at least two pieces of Wild Mouse wood on opening day, as I also got one!
 
venny said:
There was one piece of Wild Mouse wood left in the Flying Machines shop when I went in on the first day of the season. It had been snapped up before I left. By me.

Interestingly it came with a plaque declaring that the Wild Mouse was one of only three surviving rides of its type in the world. I’m guessing they ordered a job lot of them a while ago...
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Really? Oh man I want one of those. I even ordered @rob666 to tell me what was on sale on opening weekend and he did NOT report this! There were some square wood blocks in there late last season but they were not only unplaqued but even unlabelled and sat around the window display without even prices on them. @Temleh assured me it was Mouse wood and I should have bought a block there and then. Definitely never seen Mouse plaques on wood. I've got Dipper & Nash wood with plaques on (Nash with misprinted opening date of 1953) & Streak wood with just a paper tag attached to it. Come on @rob666 get your act together and get me one of these on your next weekend visit please. There's a pint in it for you.
 
Coaster said:
Welcome to Valhalla in 2018, where a projection, two audio tracks and two trommel tunnels have been replaced with... a DISCO LIGHT?!



Here's the same scene back in 2010;



"Progress."
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Links don't seem to be working my man

Sent from my Ektra using Tapatalk
 
Coaster said:
Welcome to Valhalla in 2018, where a projection, two audio tracks and two trommel tunnels have been replaced with... a DISCO LIGHT?!



Here's the same scene back in 2010;



"Progress."
Click to expand...

Too be fair those lights are the same LEDs from last season and 2016.
Only there changing colour now instead of being static on.

But yeah bummer about the projection/ two audio tracks and the trommel tunnels :/
Hopefully PB will get them fixed eventually.
 
When the park are really trying to improve presentation generally, this really stands out. That trommel doesn’t seem to have worked for years, although I recall the projection working more recently. I seem to remember the trommel section having some decent UV-type lighting on it in years gone by, which was rather effective. I’m not sure how difficult it would be to fix the rotation, but surely the lighting, audio and projection are relatively easy fixes.

I’ve said it previously, but I do fear there are parts of BPB which are undergoing a sanitisation of sorts and this sort of fits in with that trend. Another good example is the removal of the interesting backdrop of Trauma Towers being replaced by some plastic grass. You can understand these decisions when they’re driven by improvements, but at least some decisions seem to be wiping out interest and history to be replaced by little more than bland modernism.

On that subject, the back of Alice’s grimey warehouse facing onto FY4 gets worse each time you see it. I hope we’ll see some sort of covering to that stained, rusting edifice. Perhaps a large banner with some pictures of the park. It’s quite the eyesore as it is and if the plan is to use this in the summer with deckchairs etc it will need some TLC.

The other thing I’ve noticed is that the fence around the Wild Mouse site has been replaced by something a bit more ‘pretty’. This sort of tells me there are no immediate plans for the site.
 
venny said:
Another good example is the removal of the interesting backdrop of Trauma Towers being replaced by some plastic grass.

...the back of Alice’s grimey warehouse facing onto FY4 gets worse each time you see it.
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Don't think for one second that's finished!

As for Valhalla, it's a complex beast let down by initial shoddy planning and things done on the cheap. Intamin didn't exactly help with their "necessary changes" half-way through construction either. In an ideal world, I'd rip out the ride hardware and put a Mack Rides water-coaster inside the building. Retain as much theming as possible, replace broken effects with modern reliable equivalents and have a short rollercoaster finale with fire effects.

We can dream, right?
 
Temleh said:
Don't think for one second that's finished!

As for Valhalla, it's a complex beast let down by initial shoddy planning and things done on the cheap. Intamin didn't exactly help with their "necessary changes" half-way through construction either. In an ideal world, I'd rip out the ride hardware and put a Mack Rides water-coaster inside the building. Retain as much theming as possible, replace broken effects with modern reliable equivalents and have a short rollercoaster finale with fire effects.

We can dream, right?
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Thats very similar to what I would do, exept the water coaster would replace infusion.
And I would keep the building and effects but put some sort of coaster with dark ride bites, think the Mummy at Universal studios but more on a pleasure beach budget if that makes sense?

Heck maybe re install the tesla coil!:sunglasses:
 
Valhalla's first lift is far from ideal, but the rest of the ride is in a far better state than it was at the back end of the 2017 season so I'll give credit where it is due. Ring of fire has worked on every ride I've had this year!
 
Trauma towers site...
Grass pitch already laid, nice space for giant screen, Bernard on the bar just across the fountains...
Wonder if it is a world cup year?
 
Temleh said:
Don't think for one second that's finished!

As for Valhalla, it's a complex beast let down by initial shoddy planning and things done on the cheap. Intamin didn't exactly help with their "necessary changes" half-way through construction either. In an ideal world, I'd rip out the ride hardware and put a Mack Rides water-coaster inside the building. Retain as much theming as possible, replace broken effects with modern reliable equivalents and have a short rollercoaster finale with fire effects.

We can dream, right?
Click to expand...

Well if we are dreaming, just remove Valhalla and rebuild the wild mouse in the dark - or bring back the fun house.

I do actually think that Valhalla may be the next major ride to be removed/replaced, although it could still be a few years away. If you look at what else they could replace, it is either listed or wouldn't really free up much space so it's going to be either Valhalla or Infusion, and I suspect that Infusion is much cheaper to maintain and keep running.
 
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Well they've just created a rather good sized space around the dancing fountains, so I don't think they need to demolish anything else just yet.

..... So that'll be Nash going next closed season then.
 
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