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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

The building that houses Spider-Man at Universal is around 6,000 square metres, Thorpe's new building is only 2,400 sq m so we are looking at a ride that could be a third of the size. Transformers at Uni uses lifts so the ride is on two floors giving a longer ride on a smaller footprint. Thorpe's building won't be tall enough for two stories, the projection screens in Spiderman are 9.1m so could fit in a 10m building.

Will this be the rumoured Doctor Who ride? Or will it just be short and disappointing? I'm surprised the building isn't just a little larger, Mr Monkeys banana could also have been relocated......
 
Tom.B said:
Yet 2 more of the "family" attractions removed then. Urhg.
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Two? Only one confirmed going is the carousel. Which given that thorpe are now aiming at families with children over 10 is fine. If they want to ride a carousel then can go to Chessington. Also they haven't used the Ranger characters in over 10 years so the carousel is now outta place anyways. I think swapping a carousel for a dark ride is a good exchange.
 
This is also meant to be the biggest single ride investment Merlin have ever made so should be at least £20m . That's a hefty sum of money for a dark ride in a non Disney/universal park. While it might use a similar ride system to Spider-man etc don't go expecting anything on the scale of Spider-Man/ transformers or the Harry potter rides, they cost over $100m each. Though Other parks have shown though that you can make decent modern dark rides using similar technology to some of these big hitters with a little bit of creativity.

I wonder if the plan is still there for Altons 2016 ride to be a dark ride as was mentioned a while ago, as can't see both parks opening major dark rides in the same year.
 
Very interesting developments indeed here...

The facade is slightly disappointing with a generic run down feel... However, perhaps the warehouse sections will be masked or hidden from public view?

It's a good sized building for a dark ride though.
 
@HaydenCR, I reckon your right with Batman. Looks an awful lot like Arkham Asylum. As well as being conveniently themed around a boat depot...

Looks like Thorpe are en route to becoming even more like Six Flags. Ugh!
 
This gives you a better idea of what the building will look like:
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Probs be sommat like Midway Mania, lots of screens, no actual theming and not very exciting with Doctor Who attached to make it marketable [/cynical]

Would rather it be sommat like Huntik, Thors Hammer or Maus au Chocolat, but my hopes are low since Merlin don't seem to have a great experience with dark rides or using their money effectively...

Up to Merlin to surprise me...
 
Scott said:
I'm sorry... But since when was midway mania crap?!
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Didn't say it was crap, but there's a minimal amount of physical theming on that... Compared to Maus au Chocolat which clearly took the same concept and made it tonnes better...

Having just screens in a dark ride to me shows a lack of imagination to me... See Wonder Mountain Guardian as well for another example of what we might get...
 
BenBowser said:
@HaydenCR, I reckon your right with Batman. Looks an awful lot like Arkham Asylum. As well as being conveniently themed around a boat depot...

Looks like Thorpe are en route to becoming even more like Six Flags. Ugh!
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If Thorpe become anything like Six Flags I think we would be onto a good thing!!

Will be interesting to see how this develops. Building looks smaller in scale than I was expecting but it's still big enough for a decent dark ride.
Re the carousel, they are working on clearing the land of Miss Hippo's Fungle Safari - they may relocate into that area - If they are now marketing towards families it seems odd to get ride of what little family rides they have!
 
It's a shame they're still incapable of creating an interesting queue layout. The whole exposed metal is awful too. They really do work a theme to fit in with couurgated metal. Would have been amazing to have seen a Merlin building covered with theming on all angles.

I'm excited to see a big dark ride. Disappointed that one of the biggest theme park companies in the world is sticking with old tired methods and not trying something that looks like the next big step up.

I wonder whether this is a tester by Merlin for a big dark ride, so when it comes to Towers they can create something great there with ease.
 
Don't forgrt that X is just in a big correcgated metal warehouse with no theming except for paint. At least they are going to put facades on the front of this building.

As I said before I don't see the loss of a carousel an issue. They know that there is nothing at Thorpe for small children and it I don't see this changing, the target is families win children over 10, under 10s are more suited to Legoland or Chessington.

As for Toy Story Mania, that was only designed to be screens, doesn't need to be anything more as it isn't about the ride, just the game. I think I saw somewhere it was going to be a walk-through attraction but an imagineer realised you could get better throughput on a ride.
 
James said:
It's a shame they're still incapable of creating an interesting queue layout. The whole exposed metal is awful too. They really do work a theme to fit in with couurgated metal.
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In fairness, having now seen the ShippingContainerTastic! (tm) Theming on Back Lot Stunt Coaster... Merlin aren't so bad any more!
 
Dylan said:
If Thorpe become anything like Six Flags I think we would be onto a good thing!!
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No, it most defiantly wouldn't.

The park shouldn't change their target market. They were at their strongest when they were constantly adding thrill rides (2000 - 2006). What they should be doing. Is changing the branding so that is doesn't alienate the family market. So that should the older children in a family want to visit, the rest wouldn't object.

Targeting families would defeat the point of Tussaud's buying Thorpe in the first place!
 
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