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Duel 30th Anniversary Celebration?

What would you Choose

  • Duel Refurbished

    Votes: 5 23.8%

  • Bring Back The Haunted House

    Votes: 9 42.9%

  • No Change Whatsoever

    Votes: 7 33.3%
  • Total voters
    21
Trooper Looper

Trooper Looper

TS Member
Favourite Ride
Pirate Adventure
As Duel / The HH is soon closing to a Whopping 30 years of operating, I'd love to hear your thoughts on what Merlin might do next year to celebrate this Wardley Classic. A Huge refurbishment? Return of The Haunted House, or Absolutely nothing...

Can't wait to hear your Guys thoughts soon
 
AT86 said:
I mean, we know that. But do the marketing team? ;) - it gets called ‘Dual’ by them half the time, so I’m not too optimistic!
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When a couple of Theme Park Enthusiasts know more than the actual people that run it...
Reality is often disappointing.
But still, they managed to fully successfully celebrate Nemesis 25th birthday a few years back, I might have SOME hope for something to happen around Duel.
 
I don’t remember Towers doing anything to commemorate any of the rides of the Tussauds era outside of Nemesis, so this will come and go without mention. Duel has been decreasing in quality for a long time so it’s probably for the best that they keep it quiet.
 
Did they never do a 20th anniversary thing for Oblivion? I feel like they would have done, but I don’t remember it… if they did do anything, it certainly wasn’t on the scale of Neme21s or Nemesis 25, anyway.
 
There has been a lot of pin badges for anniverseries recently I think?

But the only public thing was the Neme21s stuff really. I think TowersTimes hosted some events in conjunction with AT for the anniversaries too? The only ones AT ran themselves was Nemesis X and the Black Hole goodbye I think.
 
There is nothing to celebrate about Duel in its current state.

At most, there could possibly be some retro Haunted House merchandise, but I can't see any investments being made to restore the ride to the quality levels it needs to be at or celebrated in an elaborate manner.

If anything, the priority for next year from an event/celebration perspective needs to be in getting Mardi Gras to the standard of Oktoberfest. Given how scaled up Oktoberfest this year has been compared to last (looking past the obvious pandemic induced restrictions), then there is every possibility this can be pulled off. Oh, and Scarefest not being stale for yet another year would be pleasant. Saying that, having Duel Live would be a welcome return, but that would be highly unrealistic to expect.
 
We've seen what the limit of a Duel "refurbishment" is. No chance of any more than that because your ability to capitalise on a refurb of a ride few people outside enthusiasts care about is limited.

Haunted House rebuild is probably more marketable but was expensive in 1992. It's a sadness that we have so little confidence in the park that we would prefer the ride as-built 30 years ago rather than a modern day imagining of something similar, but there we are.

What I'd like is something using the existing frontage and ride system but starting again internally. Whether that's called Haunted House, Duel or something else, I don't care.

What I actually think will happen? Pin badge.
 
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jon81uk said:
There has been a lot of pin badges for anniverseries recently I think?

But the only public thing was the Neme21s stuff really. I think TowersTimes hosted some events in conjunction with AT for the anniversaries too? The only ones AT ran themselves was Nemesis X and the Black Hole goodbye I think.
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There was also a limited event for Corkscrew's last day, although IIRC this was mostly just a normal public day with some extra merch and the ability to stand in part of the ride's frame and get an unusual view of the Corkscrews.
 
WillPS said:
We've seen what the limit of a Duel "refurbishment" is. No chance of any more than that because your ability to capitalise on a refurb of a ride few people outside enthusiasts care about is limited.

Haunted House rebuild is probably more marketable but was expensive in 1992. It's a sadness that we have so little confidence in the park that we would prefer the ride as-built 30 years ago rather than a modern day imagining of something similar, but there we are.

What I'd like is something using the existing frontage and ride system but starting again internally. Whether that's called Haunted House, Duel or something else, I don't care.

What I actually think will happen? Pin badge.
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It's not that we prefer old stuff over new stuff for nostalgic reasons, it's that, to put it bluntly, most modern day attractions have no emotion or charm to them, unlike the 80s and 90s which had, with the only one probably still pulling it off well is Nemesis and The Runaway Mine Train. I just believe Duel is capable of retaining that feeling and charm once again as the HH. We've got a whole new generation that want to experience these old attractions for the first time, but the previous generation that already did it dont want to because, like I said, they've already done them attractions, so it's a 50/50 argument really. One side wants old, the other wants new.

Like I said in one of my old comments. There should absolutely be new stuff in every theme park to keep it up to date and unique. But that being said, there should be a balance of new and old stuff. Take Knoebels for example, with their vintage attractions and new ones coexisting, and their Huanted Mansion still being considered one of the best Ghost Trains in the world, and over 50 years old with little change technology wise, yet people still love it. I believe that Duel can become the Knoebels HM of the UK as the HH once again.

Should Duel have some technology advances? YES, absolutely, take the Giant spider for example, all it needs is some extra fluid movement and then it's up to date. Just replicate the old prop mechanisms with a more reliable system and structure. This goes to a few as well, such as the last screaming head, it's mechanic is incredibly loud now. And the Crazy man in the garden, he seems to slowly turn at you rather than jumping out at you. And of course how can we forget about the *COUGH* Tr- *COUGH* -ommel. All it needs is better accessibility for maintenance.
 
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