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The Retrosquad: General Discussion

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Steve74 said:
To be fair, the times I went on it (not in the height of summer, usually was Scarefest) you rarely got wet except for maybe a bit of rogue spray in the wind. And sometimes that almost felt like a bit of a disappointment as you expected to get a squirt in the face!

IF it came back, looking forward to this cycle:

From: https://youtu.be/lgOoo1PDwRg?si=OEx2l81UuCnQrDwJ&t=66
EDIT just seen at the end of the video that two of the riders were AstroDan and Sazzle - the @AstroDan and the @Sazzle ?
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Classic times!

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Question here, if we believe the rumour that the park has bought three flat rides, likely all from Huss let's say, how much would three cost together, never mind one?

I suppose there could be some truth to the rumour of three flat rides being bought as didn't Merlin have a deal with B&M to have multiple B&M coasters across their parks? Likely there could be a similar deal with Huss or whatever manufacturer perhaps?
 
For those not on Instagram, we’ve had public confirmation from coastertog that this is indeed fan art.

Source - Coastertog’s Instagram.

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Matt N said:
Apparently Bianca did confirm that 3 permanent flat rides have been purchased to replace the RetroSquad at one of the recent Attraction Source events.

This wasn’t caught on camera, but quite a few people who went to the event have said that she said it, for what it’s worth.

With that in mind, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if one of these was in Forbidden Valley, particularly given the new shop being built next to the former site of Ripsaw.
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She didn't say that they'd been purchased, she said they they were planned. She made it seem like it was a long term plan, her exact words were something along the lines of "these things take time"
 
CoasterFan said:
She didn't say that they'd been purchased, she said they they were planned. She made it seem like it was a long term plan, her exact words were something along the lines of "these things take time"
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Ah right; thank you for correcting me. I wasn’t at the event, so I was simply going off of what was inferred on Twitter and the like.
 
CoasterFan said:
these things take time
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Sounds like an excuse to me. Find 3 flats suitable for the towers demographic and buy them. Then theme them over winter however they want, give the ride a name and then market them on social media. That shouldn't take multiple years they've had plenty of time to look at what flats they want because they would've known for a while that the retro rides were leaving at the end of the season
 
Ethan said:
Sounds like an excuse to me. Find 3 flats suitable for the towers demographic and buy them. Then theme them over winter however they want, give the ride a name and then market them on social media. That shouldn't take multiple years they've had plenty of time to look at what flats they want because they would've known for a while that the retro rides were leaving at the end of the season
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The thinking is that Nemesis will replace the capacity lost by these three rides. I cannot see anything happening until the close season before project horizon is ready.

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Poisson said:
Please, Ethan, never work in something involving getting CAPEXs approved through a business. You don't just decide and build. There's layers to the process, it doesn't just happen.
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The retro rides were put in out of the blue. Why would the process be much different when buying compared to renting as such. Its not difficult to pick some flats they want and proceed from there. Wouldn't take anywhere near the amount of planning as a coaster
 
Ethan said:
Sounds like an excuse to me. Find 3 flats suitable for the towers demographic and buy them. Then theme them over winter however they want, give the ride a name and then market them on social media. That shouldn't take multiple years they've had plenty of time to look at what flats they want because they would've known for a while that the retro rides were leaving at the end of the season
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You should work in sales with that level of positivity!
 
Ethan said:
The retro rides were put in out of the blue. Why would the process be much different when buying compared to renting as such. Its not difficult to pick some flats they want and proceed from there
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One is capital expenditure, the other is operating expenditure. Very different in terms of how they are accounted for and therefore approved internally within Merlin.
 
AT86 said:
One is capital expenditure, the other is operating expenditure. Very different in terms of how they are accounted for and therefore approved internally within Merlin.
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But the operating expenditure of those temporary rides over the past 3 years is probably the same as the amount they would've spent on permanent rides so they may as well have just bought some flats to begin with
 
Ethan said:
But the operating expenditure of those temporary rides over the past 3 years is probably the same as the amount they would've spent on permanent rides so they may as well have just bought some flats to begin with
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I’d hazard a guess that it was much more financially viable, especially post covid after their revenue dropped significantly, to rent 3 temporary flats over a 3 year term paying £x amount per month rather than paying out a large seven figure sum in one hit during a very uncertain time.
 
Ethan said:
The retro rides were put in out of the blue. Why would the process be much different when buying compared to renting as such. Its not difficult to pick some flats they want and proceed from there. Wouldn't take anywhere near the amount of planning as a coaster
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Still doubt they have these things sitting around waiting to be bought. It'll still have to be built, could take 6 months with shipping and installing etc
 
This probably just comes down to cash flow. There may not have been a significant cost differance between renting and buying over a single year (in terms of Merlins bottom line) Any new purchases will be capitalised and amortised over 15 plus years. Maybe more depending on how long the rides will last. But whether there will be the cash for this level of expenditure is the main issue, but would definitely have been preferable to renting rides, which no doubt took operational budget away from upkeep and maintenance.
 
s_g_k said:
Reading the comments on that post, it seems like fairground enthusiasts really don’t like the idea of their travelling rides being “chained up” in theme parks.

Good riddance to the horrid little thing.
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They were probably annoyed by theme park enthusiasts absolutely ripping into the ride online. Twistatron belongs on a fair and it will be appreciated far more there so I understand why they're happy to see it unchained from Towers
 
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