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Legoland Windsor

jmc said:
I’m sure the coaster is great for younger riders, but am I the only that thinks the entire presentation of the ride is an abomination?


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It's awful. Mud all over the pathways, chipped paintwork, big piles of mud, barren landscaping alongside barely any theming and no proper lego in sight.

I long for the days of quality additions at Legoland, I really do.
 
Bowser said:
Do we have clarity on if you can pick which track you ride?

Also seems they've learned nothing from Mandrill and they're not letting people wait in the station till the ride has finished because the air-gates are low. Almost positive you can wait at other parks versions of this ride although the platform looks especially small.
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At least they have built 2 coasters this time though so capacity should be pretty good? Even if the gate issue is there, it will still be much better than Mandrill.
 
It does feel like the attention to detail when it comes to Legoland Windsor projects is poor. Ninjago and Haunted House were both only half themed with huge warehouses visible and now this coaster is looking half done.

Are Merlin like this with their other Legoland park projects? Or is this unique to Windsor?
 
Don't tend to see much "proper" Lego in additions these days. Easier to have the giant fibreglass look than clean/repair the blocks.

Think the other parks are hit and miss. Ghost's building is hidden but the queue is awful and barren. Probably more just Merlin half arsing it all.
 
TPWW with their review here:


From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcRjJ8jhODo


It does look as underwhelming as i expected tbh, especially the landscaping at present. Not sure why they felt the rush to get it open when half the schools go back this week.

Can't queue on the platform, can't pick your train atm.

The interaction looks cool but ultimately it's a tamer version of Velociraptor as expected. It is a family coaster at Legoland after all.

We were thinking of going next week but don't feel in any rush to do so now and might wait till they've tidied it up a bit and queues die down.

Hopefully eases the queues on SkyLion too.
 
Think people are being a bit harsh. Theming is a bit poor but my 4 year old girl is giddy excited to get on this. It’s gonna overtake her previous favourite (accelerator at Drayton) for sure.
The target don’t see things the same way we do - and ultimately it’s an attraction for 4-10 year olds, not grown men and women.
 
I think the coaster itself (or coasters themselves, as it’s duelling?) looks like quite good fun, if not anything particularly earth-shattering. While they’re not absolute favourites of mine by any means, I don’t dislike the Vekoma Family Boomerangs at all, and if I were to ride the two sides of Minifigure Speedway, I imagine my thoughts would be similar. This is effectively the same thing as Vekoma’s duelling Family Boomerang model, but simply manufactured by Zierer rather than Vekoma.

I do think that the overall finish with the mud everywhere leaves much to be desired, and the queue and station perhaps aren’t the most interesting theming-wise, but the rides themselves look like good fun, the duelling element should be good for capacity (even if Merlin appear to have repeated their airgate mistake from Mandrill Mayhem), and I’m sure it will be popular among the young family demographic, who are the target audience after all!

I think overall, the attraction will go down nicely and be a good addition to the park. Yes, the overall finish in terms of theming/landscaping definitely seems to be lacking at present, but Legoland Windsor did need a more thrilling coaster than the Dragon, and Minifigure Speedway appears to fit that billing quite nicely, in my view!
 
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Alphe86 said:
Think people are being a bit harsh. Theming is a bit poor but my 4 year old girl is giddy excited to get on this. It’s gonna overtake her previous favourite (accelerator at Drayton) for sure.
The target don’t see things the same way we do - and ultimately it’s an attraction for 4-10 year olds, not grown men and women.
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I agree and I’m similar, I always look at rides from the perspective of “will my son enjoy it”, which he will but I don’t think it’ll be a favourite as he’s already riding more exciting things even within the same park.

It’s always good to be adding big new attractions though, especially since they lost Viking rapids and the submarine is seemingly out of action this year.
 
Alphe86 said:
Think people are being a bit harsh. Theming is a bit poor but my 4 year old girl is giddy excited to get on this. It’s gonna overtake her previous favourite (accelerator at Drayton) for sure.
The target don’t see things the same way we do - and ultimately it’s an attraction for 4-10 year olds, not grown men and women.
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It’s not harsh, really.

Of course the “target” aren’t thinking about landscaping but the entire point of theme parks is that they’re immersive and give visitors a warm, fuzzy feeling subconsciously because for the time they’re inside they feel totally surrounded by that theme and “in” that world. This is harder to achieve with piles of mud, big warehouses and a derelict rapids channel and - in my view - hard to justify when parents of the target are paying a pretty penny to give their kids the most memorable day out possible.

If we’re going to go down the “let’s cut them some slack for an obviously unfinished product” route then Merlin might as well not theme anything anymore and plonk rides down on concrete slabs à la Adventure Island.
 
When you compare the final product of this to somewhere like Storm Chaser in Paultons Park or even some of the Plopsa developments, it definitely looks like more could have been and added to make the area look more photogenic. Even just some minor shrubbery, landscaping and basic structures makes a difference.

At the end of the day this isn’t the same as the new Austrian area at Europa or anything else. But competant cosmetic work goes a long way, which sadly is something most new Legoland investments fall short of.
 
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