Rollercoaster5000

Mazel Tov! Look of the size of the lift in comparison to the workers.. it's huge!

More pictures have been posted on Theme UK www.themeuk.net/LC12_Thorpe_ParkPG1.html

Here are a few of our pictures from yesterday The rest of the update can be found here http://thorpeparklc12news.blogspot.com/2011/10/construction-update-11102011.html. Also - the latest time lapse image has been posted on the development diary, more of the lift hill has been erected.

That report brings back so many childhood memories! Thanks for posting

I think everyone already had that figured out... No,I was answering andyuk's quesion.. Plenty of pictures from mania hub at the moment. We will have an update from Fright Nights and a Swarm construction update tonight, might upload a few of our pics here, if you ask nicely .

The disks are there to cover the holes they drilled in to pour the sand in to the track.

Sorry, I was implying that because it usually does take a few weeks to get the track up. Could be wrong about the swarm though...

Finally it's gone vertical! Track should take just over two weeks to erect. Can't wait to see this all in person ! The track was always intended to be 'mouse grey'.

You mean Extremis At the moment no drop ride has been confirmed by Alton Towers. It's all rumours at the moment.... hope it is anyway! Another drop ride at the park would be a bad move!

Merlin normally design their coasters' layouts. What happens is that they design a rough layout and send it off to the manufacturer who can make a few amendments to make the ride safer. This is what happened with Thi3teen anyway (John Wardley mentioned he devised Thi3'teen's layout at the Thi3teen evening and they sent it to Intamin). If Merlin/Thorpe did design the layout then I think they have every right to be upset and throw a hissy fit.. from reading the statement it does sound as though thorpe park designed the layout and added the dive at the start of the ride. Of course if B&M were the designers, then thorpe are being out of order.

Sorry but that was never confirmed, it is only a rumour.

To the north of Nemesis, it is at the entrance to the Forbidden Valley.

Well it does start off similarly to The Swarm, but the rest of the layout is different after the zero G roll. Typical Six Flags to not really theme their coasters to a decent standard, but I'm glad we have the better themed coaster instead .

The Swarm is taller than this one, but this is a tad longer... don't like how they have used the same dive loop element, but since our version looks to be better themed and taller.. we have an advantage .. still this looks incredibly epic with some great elements, loving the theming/chopper elements! Need to make a trip down to the states in 2012! B&M are on top form this year! Umm.. Swarm hasn't even opened yet so you can't judge it, don't forget that Swarm and X-Flight will both be a lot taller than Raptor! Since X-Flight and The Swarm are around the same height, they will both feature a similar level of intensity. Both start with a dive which is going to be a very intense element, but after the first few inversions a lot of speed is going to be taken out of the two rides so I expect them both to become a lot slower after their third inversions. I guess you haven't seen the plans for The Swarm then? It has an entirely different layout to Raptor!

Sounds great but it's in the wrong location..just gonna dwarf Dragon Khan really :/.

That's worrying. Yes, B&M's are usually 'fat friendly' and with the amount of obese people in the UK I'm slightly worried about LC12. Hopefully B&M will sort that issue out so that future wing-rider models will accommodate enough space for the obese. I think you're in the minority of those who find Raptor dull because the majority of reviews I've read state that Raptor is a very fun ride. Most of us knew that Raptor would be a fun ride and more 'Air' like rather than fast, intense and forceful to be honest.

Yet more brilliant theming from Merlin! Hopefully a sign of things to come for the UK . Krake looks epic win! Merlin really seem to like disturbing adverts, I mean look at Th13teen's advert . It was mentioned in the LC12 plans that theming is essential for the ride experience...so thorpe actually want to have a very well themed experience! Which is a first . Anyway Krake, Raptor and LC12 all look to be great coasters, I'm just hoping LC12 lives up to the hype and Krake to be brilliant regardless of it's length...but Oblivion at Alton Towers has a very short length and is one of the top rides in the UK so I have hope that Krake will be awesome regardless of it's length.

Very interesting indeed! Really like how it's different to the other Disney parks.

Have you heard of Disneyland, Universal, Busch Gardens and Sea World? They theme their rides better than Merlin have done with Raptor. Most of your parks are 'amusement parks' so that's why they don't theme their rides to the same standard. Our thrill park, Thorpe Park are kind of the same. They don't really bother as they are 'thrill park', but LC12 should change that. Overall Raptor looks like an amazing ride, lots of hints of 90's Tussauds (now Merlin) style of theming and the ride interacting with the public. Candy has done a brilliant job, John Wardley should be proud (he'll be even happier if she comes out with something even better for Alton Towers).

Well I am surprised at this. Merlin can theme their rides to a high quality. Raptor looks like a very fun ride. Just hoping that LC12 can turn out even better. Merlin have shown that they can pull out the stops to come out with a ride that interacts very well with the landscape and theming. This is themed brilliantly but looking at this makes me very angry. Why did they not bother to theme SAW and Th13teen as well as this? Now that they want to theme LC12 as well as Raptor I'm confident the UK will finally be on par with other parks in Europe. As for the ride itself, wow. Very smooth. Looks to be a very fun ride but not too intense, like Air at Alton Towers. Really like the trains as well. Look forward to seeing how Krake turns out. Need to get down to Italy again this year! Brilliant update by the way!

Planning permission for LC12 has now been granted! Article from Thorpe Park Mania Very excited for this .

So Blackpool safely operating multiple 50+ year old woodies is not good enough to convince them? Nope not even that. Roller coasters made of a material like wood are deemed less safe than steel coasters by the British public. It does not help when the old woodies in PBB end up having an accident, Big Dipper happened to have two in the space of a few months two years ago. These woodies are safe, the Big Dipper never had an accident until 2009. It is because of stupid things like that the British public are terrified of woodies. A survey conducted by Alton Towers confirmed that the public do not want a woodie and Merlin are unhappy to invest in a coaster which would not attract interest. So as much as all Alton Towers fans want one, SW7 will not be a woodie.

This is very exciting. I know it was confirmed back during the Th13teen evening that they were looking into installing a thrill ride and a world first for SW7, but it is great to know that this is now definitely going ahead. Hoping they utilise some of their 'virgin land' (as John Wardley mentioned there is a lot of spare land in the property) instead of ripping out another ride for SW7 to take it's place. They do need to expand the park into areas that they can build a 'tad' higher (not so much that rides are visible from many areas of the park as the below tree level coasters add to the park's uniqueness) and where they are able to add theming that does not get cut out by the planners. Hoping the tent isn't used for this as it would be nice to see that used for a nice indoor family coaster. Here's hoping we don't end up with another half arsed job for SW7 and that we end up with a world class roller coaster with high quality theming....and it would be nice for it to be a B&M or a Mack.

Concept art for the London Dungeon's new 5D ride 'Vengeance' has been revealed. Really looking forward to this.

The Mirror are hardly a reliable source. I pasted this paragraph from an article on Mugglenet onto this topic yesterday So there you have it, there is no Harry Potter theme park for London then! Details will be released tomorrow, only we will know exactly what the Potter attraction is.