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TBC: SW9 Speculation

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Doesn't BBC have the rights to horrible histories now? I wonder if there were a ride it would be in the new London attraction park (if it ever breaks ground) as aren't they planning a BBC area
 
Tibble said:
Doesn't BBC have the rights to horrible histories now? I wonder if there were a ride it would be in the new London attraction park (if it ever breaks ground) as aren't they planning a BBC area
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Horrible Histories aired on CBBC, it is a BBC show. But Warwick Castle has licensed it for some attractions https://www.warwick-castle.com/explore/attractions/horrible-histories-maze/

no idea if the London Resort still has an agreement to license BBC content, but I think Merlin did CBeebies and the Warwick stuff since that initial talk about London/Paramount resort licensing BBC shows.
 
Thameslink Rail said:
However the BBC television series was based on a book series published by Scholastic, did the BBC buy Horrible Histories outright or did they license it?
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The TV show is made for the BBC by Lion TV and they of course licensed the name from Scholastic who publish the books by Terry Deary.
The Warwick Castle maze appears to use illustration from the books so must be licensed from Scholastic, so no BBC involvement actually.
But if they wanted to use the live actors from the CBBC show then it would need BBC, Lion TV and Scholastic to be involved.
 
jon81uk said:
The TV show is made for the BBC by Lion TV and they of course licensed the name from Scholastic who publish the books by Terry Deary.
The Warwick Castle maze appears to use illustration from the books so must be licensed from Scholastic, so no BBC involvement actually.
But if they wanted to use the live actors from the CBBC show then it would need BBC, Lion TV and Scholastic to be involved.
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Didn't the Warwick Castle HH maze used to be a Dungeons? Towers Dungeon could be turned into a HH experience.
 
Steve74 said:
They have a Horrible Histories maze at Warwick castle (based on the books not the [excellent] TV series) so Merlin already have some licencing agreement with the brand.
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Yes I've found that out and discussed it in following posts.

I would say for a dark ride it might be nice to use the live action show and potentially some of the songs contained within, but that would need the licensing with Lion TV and the BBC as well as Scholastic.
I think a boat ride based on the books risks being like Charlie was, too many fairly static set pieces and not enough music and action.
 
jon81uk said:
Yes I've found that out and discussed it in following posts.

I would say for a dark ride it might be nice to use the live action show and potentially some of the songs contained within, but that would need the licensing with Lion TV and the BBC as well as Scholastic.
I think a boat ride based on the books risks being like Charlie was, too many fairly static set pieces and not enough music and action.
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Yeah I realised that and asked the admins to delete my post! :D
 
s_g_k said:
When we do eventually get SW9, where do we think it will be situated?
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You know I'm really not sure anymore. I would have said 2023 or 2024 however with chessington getting a ride in 2023 and Thorpe now rumoured to be getting a ride in 2024. I'm not sure Alton would wait until 2025 for there next coaster which would be a gap of 7 years since Wicker Man.

So which one would they not mind building a ride in the same year? I think it will be Chessington. I suspect SW9 will open in 2023 and my reasoning for this is that Thorpe's new coaster will probably be thrilling while Chessingtons is clearly a slightly more thrilling family coaster. I think this could signal that Altons ride is a full blown thrill coaster. However we would be seeing planning permission soon if this was the case and there's no sign of that being immanent so maybe SW9 has been delayed. I just think when Thorpe open there new ride they'd want as many visitors a posibile, especially since the failure of the Swarm to attract more visitors.

If they do decide to open it in 2024 then maybe what Thorpe are building is less thrilling or maybe Altons is less thrilling I suppose we'll just have to wait and see.
 
I’m personally reckoning Forbidden Valley will be the location for SW9 whenever it eventually comes. There’s a huge amount of empty space in the area now, and there would be even more if they removed Blade.

In terms of what it could be; I have no idea. People have thrown around all kinds of rumours.

I reckon it might be some kind of new launch coaster. As for who’d manufacture such a ride; I’ve got no idea, in all honesty. I could see Intamin, as Merlin seems to have a strong relationship with the company, and they’ll manufacture just about anything a park wants, although I also reckon Mack could be a possibility, especially if Towers wanted something more unique; an XTREME Spinning Coaster would fit the bill wonderfully if they wanted a more unique launch coaster!

Since Chessington’s 2023 B&M wing coaster announcement and the confirmation of Legoland Sichuan containing B&Ms, however, many enthusiasts have begun speculating that Merlin could have another large-scale package deal with B&M similar to the one they supposedly had in the early 2010s (if true, said package deal is said to have produced Raptor, Krake, Swarm, Flug der Damonen and Oblivion the Black Hole). If this is the case and Merlin have signed another package deal with B&M, could we possibly see a B&M coaster for SW9?
 
Wasn’t Wickerman’s planning released in May 2016? If SW9 was planned for 2023 I’m 100% sure we’d have seen some official planning info by now, which is what makes me think it’ll be 2024 at the earliest.

If FV is the chosen site, it would mean losing 3 flat ride areas (Blade, NST and FnF) so the throughput would have to be decent so as to not only compensate for the loss of 3 flat areas (although NST isn’t operating) but also increase throughout in that area so as to get a return on their investment. Building a new area on the Galactica car park would obviously increase capacity therefore revenue, but with it being a flat tarmacced site I reckon the level of investment needed would be massive.

Remember when Alton Towers released that simple “design your park map” feature a year or 2 ago? They gave the option of adding an underground coaster or an indoor water coaster - maybe they were discreetly testing the water (pardon the pun) to see how many people went for either option?
 
s_g_k said:
Wasn’t Wickerman’s planning released in May 2016? If SW9 was planned for 2023 I’m 100% sure we’d have seen some official planning info by now, which is what makes me think it’ll be 2024 at the earliest.
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WM’s was indeed May 2016, however we have had them later before. Smiler’s wasn’t submitted until January 2012, and I believe Thirteen’s wasn’t submitted until December 2008 or January 2009; I think it was definitely after Corkscrew closed, and that was November 2008.
EDIT: Thirteen was December 2008 according to TowersTimes: https://www.towerstimes.co.uk/blog/2008/12/09/2010-planning-application-made/
 
Matt N said:
m personally reckoning Forbidden Valley will be the location for SW9 whenever it eventually comes. There’s a huge amount of empty space in the area now, and there would be even more if they removed Blade.
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I 100% agree and if they remove sub-terra building and queueline or even use it as the station that'd give them even more space.
Matt N said:
I reckon it might be some kind of new launch coaster. As for who’d manufacture such a ride; I’ve got no idea, in all honesty. I could see Intamin, as Merlin seems to have a strong relationship with the company, and they’ll manufacture just about anything a park wants, although I also reckon Mack could be a possibility, especially if Towers wanted something more unique; an XTREME Spinning Coaster would fit the bill wonderfully if they wanted a more unique launch coaster!
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I too think it will be launched. although there's quite a bit of room in forbidden valley, There's isn't a lot of height clearance and I'm not sure Merlin would want to do a nemesis and make a massive pit, although I suspect it will need some pits/trenches to run through. A launch makes that considerably easier as you don't need the lift hill, for height reasons.
Matt N said:
Since Chessington’s 2023 coaster announcement and the confirmation of Legoland Sichuan containing B&Ms, however, many enthusiasts have begun speculating that Merlin could have another large-scale package deal with B&M similar to the one they supposedly had in the early 2010s (if true, said package deal is said to have produced Raptor, Krake, Swarm, Flug der Damonen and Oblivion the Black Hole). If this is the case and Merlin have signed another package deal with B&M, could we possibly see a B&M coaster for SW9?
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I am quite confident in my prediction that there's a package deal with B&M and Merlin.

For all the reasons above, what about one of these surf coasters from B&M, to me it sounds like it fits the bill of an Alton Towers SW. It will be somewhat unique as at the time of this being built it would likely only be the second or third build and likely the first in europe. It's launched and should probably be able to fit is designed properly.
 
JAperson said:
You know I'm really not sure anymore. I would have said 2023 or 2024 however with chessington getting a ride in 2023 and Thorpe now rumoured to be getting a ride in 2024. I'm not sure Alton would wait until 2025 for there next coaster which would be a gap of 7 years since Wicker Man.
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I don't think there is any issue waiting that long for another coaster, but they need to build other major rides.

Major theming work is needed on several rides such as rapids & Duel, four new flat rides are needed, a show or something in the Walliams Cuckoo theatre, a new or replacement CBeebies attraction, a new dark ride to replace the Dungeon (move the Dungeon into the towers if they want to keep the walk through parts like Warwick Castle).

There is plenty the park could do and advertised as new. Ripsaw & Submission still got TV advertisements when added and doing both of their replacements in one year could be quite major.
 
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