TPR Video from IAAPA, GG want to build at Alton towers

[AstroDan]

A gimmick, really? If anything it would suit Alton Towers ideally. Merlin Studios can create some pretty unique concepts when they put their heads to it. So it would be a match made it heaven. They would take the wooden coaster and turn it into something that will amaze.

Yes a gimmick really. To shove a woodie in just for the sake of it would be desperate in eyes . I'm all for a good woodie, the grand national in particular. Im sure the ride would look good at Alton, and they could theme it very well, but it would have to be a kids ride. Nothing more. Im sorry to say.

Have you actually been on a modern woodie?

You know, Troy, Joris, Wodan, Colossos, Balder - something like that?!

 

[Slugjc]

A gimmick, really? If anything it would suit Alton Towers ideally. Merlin Studios can create some pretty unique concepts when they put their heads to it. So it would be a match made it heaven. They would take the wooden coaster and turn it into something that will amaze.

Yes a gimmick really. To shove a woodie in just for the sake of it would be desperate in eyes . I'm all for a good woodie, the grand national in particular. Im sure the ride would look good at Alton, and they could theme it very well, but it would have to be a kids ride. Nothing more. Im sorry to say.

Have you actually been on a modern woodie?

You know, Troy, Joris, Wodan, Colossos, Balder - something like that?!

Yes,

 

[LiamC]

A gimmick, really? If anything it would suit Alton Towers ideally. Merlin Studios can create some pretty unique concepts when they put their heads to it. So it would be a match made it heaven. They would take the wooden coaster and turn it into something that will amaze.

Yes a gimmick really. To shove a woodie in just for the sake of it would be desperate in eyes . I'm all for a good woodie, the grand national in particular. Im sure the ride would look good at Alton, and they could theme it very well, but it would have to be a kids ride. Nothing more. Im sorry to say.

Have you actually been on a modern woodie?

You know, Troy, Joris, Wodan, Colossos, Balder - something like that?!

Yes,

I'm genuinely interested to hear which one? After riding my first modern one back in October my opinion and perception changed on them completely. For me, a wooden coaster is now the next and only logical step for Alton Towers if it wants to compete against the other parks.

 

[Slugjc]

A gimmick, really? If anything it would suit Alton Towers ideally. Merlin Studios can create some pretty unique concepts when they put their heads to it. So it would be a match made it heaven. They would take the wooden coaster and turn it into something that will amaze.

Yes a gimmick really. To shove a woodie in just for the sake of it would be desperate in eyes . I'm all for a good woodie, the grand national in particular. Im sure the ride would look good at Alton, and they could theme it very well, but it would have to be a kids ride. Nothing more. Im sorry to say.

Have you actually been on a modern woodie?

You know, Troy, Joris, Wodan, Colossos, Balder - something like that?!

Yes,

I'm genuinely interested to hear which one? After riding my first modern one back in October my opinion and perception changed on them completely. For me, a wooden coaster is now the next and only logical step for Alton Towers if it wants to compete against the other parks.

Balder if you must know. Little trip to Sweden few years back. It was good grant you. Just doesn't excite me. Sorry for having a different opinion to everyone but that's a point of a forums if I'm not mistaken. It would look good. But will AT be able to get planning permission for a world beater.

 

[LiamC]

A gimmick, really? If anything it would suit Alton Towers ideally. Merlin Studios can create some pretty unique concepts when they put their heads to it. So it would be a match made it heaven. They would take the wooden coaster and turn it into something that will amaze.

Yes a gimmick really. To shove a woodie in just for the sake of it would be desperate in eyes . I'm all for a good woodie, the grand national in particular. Im sure the ride would look good at Alton, and they could theme it very well, but it would have to be a kids ride. Nothing more. Im sorry to say.

Have you actually been on a modern woodie?

You know, Troy, Joris, Wodan, Colossos, Balder - something like that?!

Yes,

I'm genuinely interested to hear which one? After riding my first modern one back in October my opinion and perception changed on them completely. For me, a wooden coaster is now the next and only logical step for Alton Towers if it wants to compete against the other parks.

Balder if you must know. Little trip to Sweden few years back. It was good grant you. Just doesn't excite me. Sorry for having a different opinion to everyone but that's a point of a forums if I'm not mistaken. It would look good. But will AT be able to get planning permission for a world beater.

Indeed, and you should expect opinions in the opposite way.

Such a highly regarded one too! It's a shame that people do see modern woodies in this light as I genuinely feel that they are fantastic pieces of kit

 

[AstroDan]

A gimmick, really? If anything it would suit Alton Towers ideally. Merlin Studios can create some pretty unique concepts when they put their heads to it. So it would be a match made it heaven. They would take the wooden coaster and turn it into something that will amaze.

Yes a gimmick really. To shove a woodie in just for the sake of it would be desperate in eyes . I'm all for a good woodie, the grand national in particular. Im sure the ride would look good at Alton, and they could theme it very well, but it would have to be a kids ride. Nothing more. Im sorry to say.

Have you actually been on a modern woodie?

You know, Troy, Joris, Wodan, Colossos, Balder - something like that?!

Yes,

I'm genuinely interested to hear which one? After riding my first modern one back in October my opinion and perception changed on them completely. For me, a wooden coaster is now the next and only logical step for Alton Towers if it wants to compete against the other parks.

Balder if you must know. Little trip to Sweden few years back. It was good grant you. Just doesn't excite me. Sorry for having a different opinion to everyone but that's a point of a forums if I'm not mistaken. It would look good. But will AT be able to get planning permission for a world beater.

I appreciate everyone's opinions, thanks. But you were not making it clear that you had been on any actual modern woodies.

Thank you for clearing it up.

I will be riding Balder myself next year and am very excited for it. Although I don't think it'll be quite up there with El Toro, which is my personal #1 coaster.

 

[Slugjc]

A gimmick, really? If anything it would suit Alton Towers ideally. Merlin Studios can create some pretty unique concepts when they put their heads to it. So it would be a match made it heaven. They would take the wooden coaster and turn it into something that will amaze.

Yes a gimmick really. To shove a woodie in just for the sake of it would be desperate in eyes . I'm all for a good woodie, the grand national in particular. Im sure the ride would look good at Alton, and they could theme it very well, but it would have to be a kids ride. Nothing more. Im sorry to say.

Have you actually been on a modern woodie?

You know, Troy, Joris, Wodan, Colossos, Balder - something like that?!

Yes,

I'm genuinely interested to hear which one? After riding my first modern one back in October my opinion and perception changed on them completely. For me, a wooden coaster is now the next and only logical step for Alton Towers if it wants to compete against the other parks.

Balder if you must know. Little trip to Sweden few years back. It was good grant you. Just doesn't excite me. Sorry for having a different opinion to everyone but that's a point of a forums if I'm not mistaken. It would look good. But will AT be able to get planning permission for a world beater.

I appreciate everyone's opinions, thanks. But you were not making it clear that you had been on any actual modern woodies.

Thank you for clearing it up.

I will be riding Balder myself next year and am very excited for it. Although I don't think it'll be quite up there with El Toro, which is my personal #1 coaster.

The reason I said that was because there was a playground sense of look at that idiot there approach that's all. Didn't mean to offend. Just how I felt.

I respect everyone opinion. Woodies are beautiful to behold but to me they are a glamorous picture from the 60's beautiful to look at. But you now know she'll have grand kids that will be technically better and more imanigative. Unless they make it as good as the smiler nemesis etc then fair enough. All I can see it being is a 13 made from wood.

 

[Benzin]

The problem is that the Intamin ones are just, well, bland...

Colossos felt more like a Steel coaster than a wood coaster, and I think that's probably why I look at the RMC ones and go 'meh'...

To get a real look at modern wooden coasters, GCIs need to be experienced...

 

[CGM]

The problem is that the Intamin ones are just, well, bland...

Colossos felt more like a Steel coaster than a wood coaster, and I think that's probably why I look at the RMC ones and go 'meh'...

To get a real look at modern wooden coasters, GCIs need to be experienced...

I certainly wouldn't describe Balder as being bland, every single hill attempts to send you into orbit!

I don't understand why people give Intamin such a hard time for producing smooth wooden coasters. Wood is simply a building material, you can do a lot of things with it. Why should we constrain ourselves solely to a construction technique that's over 100 years old when we have new and exciting technologies that allow us to use wood in other ways? I love traditionally constructed wooden coasters too, the work that GCI does is brilliant but I think the market's large enough to accommodate both styles of construction.

In Europe, we don't have anything like as much expertise as the US when it comes to traditional wooden coasters so it makes a lot of sense for Intamin to go about things differently. They used to produce pretty average to poor woodies before they moved onto their pre-fabricated system.
At least now if nothing else, they have a product with its own unique identity that offers a completely different type of ride experience to any of their rivals and deals with many of the inherent maintenance problems of traditional woodies. It overall broadens the wooden coaster market, which is a good thing.

I don't accept that Intamin woodies ride like steel coasters either because I don't think they do. There is a certain feel that you can only get from an organic material and it's present on Intamin woodies. Due to the limited agility of the trains and track system, the elements have a much more geometric quality yet somehow they still manage to flow nicely. There's also no steel coaster that I know of that delivers airtime in quite the same way as Balder. It's very abrupt, very powerful and utterly relentless. It puts me more in mind of the final run of hills on Boulder Dash or Phoenix than anything on a steel coaster. In addition to this, there's everything that happens in the peripheral such as structural head-choppers and the sound of the up-stops when cresting an airtime hill.

I just think that the mentality that a wooden coaster must be a certain way because tradition dictates it is an unhealthy one. It seems that many put the importance of the coaster's construction before the overall quality of the ride experience. If the ride is good, what's the point in getting hung up on how it was made?

 

[Benzin]

Having not been on Balder I cannot speak for it, but I can certainly say that if Colossos felt like any other steel coaster type it would have to be a B&M Hyper...

Though that's certainly more in part of the layout more than anything, but very out-n-back where as Balder is a lot more compact from what I can tell... By the sounds of things, the two are very different kettles of fish, rather than very similar (Colossos has no near-misses, and like most Intamin steel coasters, falters around after a decent first drop)...

Of course there is room for both ride types, but I just have a preference over GCIs attempts of modernising the wooden coaster as they seem to manage to retain what makes a wooden coaster so fascinating... Colossos just didn't do that for me, so I'm doubtful as to what Balder and El Toro could actually do...

Hopefully I should at least be riding Balder this year, as well as Colossos and a few other wooden coasters from other manufacturers (Vekoma in Norway, my first Gravity Group and RCCA (dread) and Wodan at minimum, plus after riding Loup-Garou/Falken this year, I wouldn't say no to either Vekoma/S&S putting a project into the UK either)...

At the end as always, the opinions come down to personal preference, as I am pretty much the only person I know who thought Colossos was just complete meh... But such is life, some people like Baco (though they are quite often ridiculed for it, and rightly so)...

 

[Rob]

The problem is that the Intamin ones are just, well, bland...

Colossos felt more like a Steel coaster than a wood coaster, and I think that's probably why I look at the RMC ones and go 'meh'...

To get a real look at modern wooden coasters, GCIs need to be experienced...

Whoa! I don't think you can say that based on just one Intamnin woodie which doesn't have the best reputation. If you ride El Toro are SF Great Adventure then there's no way you would ever call Intamin wooides bland. It is one of the craziest coasters I have ever been on pack with tonnes of ejector airtime. It is quite simply immense! It seems like Balder gets great revies only. El Toro is far less bland than any GCI I have been on.

 

[BigAl]

Tbh, I wouldn't mind any of them!

 

[Ted]

Gravity Group, Intamin or GCI. I really would not be bothered about who builds a woodie at Alton.

I do not want an RMC though. They look horrid and I don't consider them "Wooden coasters"

 

[BigAl]

RMC's which use I-Box track aren't proper wooden coasters (i.e. New Texas Giant), but Outlaw Run is. Would you really turn down a ride like that?

 

[Ted]

RMC's which use I-Box track aren't proper wooden coasters (i.e. New Texas Giant), but Outlaw Run is. Would you really turn down a ride like that?

Would not mind something similar to Outlaw Run. At least it looks more like a Woodie than New Texas Giant!

That, and the ride itself looks amazing =P

 

[Jables]

I'd love a woodie at AT, I think it should be their next secret weapon!

But as it's been said before, the public don't have much of a liking for woodies, they are considered dangerous, unsafe and old fashioned. That's the problem with building one. Also, woodies don't usually tend to have USP's as often as steel coasters. As we all know, the public would much rather see "WORLDS FASTEST, TALLEST, SCARIEST ROLLERCOASTER" blah blah blah, than a good, well landscaped (hopefully), well themed (hopefully) woodie.