Levithian

He actually seemed to care about what was going on. He used to frequently be seen walking through the parks at different times of the day, chatting to different people. Seemed like if he wanted to know something, he would just walk out his office and look for himself. In the event of any incidents, he was out there following what was going on, seeing if there was anything he could do but staying out of the way of people trained to respond and letting them get on with it, then debriefing in his office afterwards, making sure everyone who attended was ok.

Given how he was basically overlooked at village, and with bikash now gone, I really wonder if Greg goes home at the end of his day with a nice smile on his face, knowing the general public is now seeing the positive effects and influence he (and half his team that ended up following him) has had since taking over the company. Must be really satisfying to help turn around a company that was close to insolvency, have a plan for improvements (not just recovery) and start to see the positive feedback from guests following investments in things like this. It looks fantastic, when the other reality could have just been another relocation of old cars running around on a track. It's refreshing to see some care and attention given to the setting and themed elements of a ride again, especially when it isn't a big budget thrill ride. Yeah, limited budgets, limited space are always constraints in Australia, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't at least try to deliver something that improves the overall experience. To me, it really shows intention to build zones or lands back into theme parks, something that at least makes an attempt at something cohesive instead of just plonking something down on a bit of land and calling it done. Makes me wonder just how constrained he was working under the village shroud, when this is like the polar opposite of how things are going over there.

Every single high risk industry is playing the risk aversive game. That's what I mean by this day and age. Change is just an opinion. While they continue making profits everybody is happy with, there is basically no metric that shows they actually need to change and its business as usual. There's lots of things they do need to change about the business and the delivery of the parks that would improve guest experience that has nothing to do with their operations policies though. But operations wise, everyone can keep discussing it till they are blue in the face, it's just not something the current management will ever deviate from. Because they purchased the company massively undervalued, they talked of improvements all round as a lot of the properties were seen as run down, dirty, etc. Private equity will spend money if it means they make money. All the properties will look and feel their best they have ever done.... right before you see them for sale. Only question is are BGH playing the long or shot game, because it's already been 5 years and we haven't heard any murmurs yet. All they really needed to do was ride out the covid disaster and return visitor numbers to the figures of 3-4 year period before and they probably could have offloaded the theme park division pretty easily for good profits.

Fire departments don't do that. They don't make policy or give people direction on things like building materials. That's what building codes are for. Anything you use just has to conform to whatever the current standard is. For things that are flammable, it usually has a performance minimum, ie, how long it takes to burn, ignition points, etc. Lots of this can often be overcome with all these different types of fire retardant though, BUT, it generally has a shelf life too. That's what village found out across a number of their properties, not just in scooby doo. It's what lead to the gutting of the ride the first time around. Think poorly performing aluminium building cladding levels of fire. There is pretty much always a safer alternative though. Especially now with the use of 3d printing and reconstituted stone materials. It often just comes down a cost or convenience thing. Are they happy to go the downgraded cheaper option or are they really looking to keep the aesthetics with the additional cost associated? Even with 2d backdrops, there are vastly different outcomes that can be achieved if you actually use artists vs just slap a vinyl print up there. We saw the outcome of the latter in recent years, often at the cost of painted murals or signage that were night and day different. Village had one of the best muralists and sign writers working for them for over 20 years, it really showed across all their parks, the quality and level of detail was evident. It also showed when they got rid of him...... You can thank most of the "movie magic" or themed elements to buildings, set pieces and rides across the parks to a company called sculpt studios. They have been designing and building these elements for village roadshow for quite a long time, not just in their theme parks either! They are a pretty diverse company and can make pretty much anything look like something else. It all just comes down to cost.

Warner bros don't own even a small portion of movieworld, let alone any other village property. They haven't done for quite a long time. It's just a licencing deal to continue to use the name at this point.

I think he was meaning flat 2d walls are a downgrade from the textured, rock like looking ones that were used before.

still sound to be petrol driven engines with throttles. So I'm probably going to say no.

To a point, yes it will improve things. But indoor rides are always much dirtier environments by nature. It's not like the cleaning team are running around with vacuum cleaners under the track and all through the high zone every night. Running fluids, greases, general dirt and grime, rubber from all the friction drive wheels. It'll still be pretty dirty, just not AS dirty. Makes a big difference when things are outside with wind blowing through and rain frequently washing everything down.

TRRR is a vastly different situation stemming from negligence though, but I don't want to get into it because it takes the conversation away from here. 100% its a cop out by applying blanket rules to everything instead of actually taking up a lot of time developing sop's and managing each appliance in a case by case basis. But that's pretty much how all industry is these days, it's a desire for uniformity. Nobody wants to expose themselves to any risk at all as even if you did all you could, if you weren't found negligent or culpable in even the slightest way, it still opens you to being sued (and facing settlement) for causing injury or death. It puts your entire business under a microscope, not just now, but history going back decades. Not to mention the public fall out and the brand damage that follows. So what happens? you go from looking at worst case scenarios to looking at apocalyptic, never in a million years type events. These are the cascading type ones where multiple issues have to combine together to create disaster. So they try to be proactive and mitigate those possibilities from ever happening, let alone the major risk that's present if they combine. It's frustrating for pretty much everyone. All facets of employees, guests, even ride manufacturers, but it is what it is. People really do NOT understand how serious the green lantern incident was years earlier and just how much village roadshow took away from this situation. It is primarily responsible for setting in motion major changes right through the company, not just in how risk is managed, but how far they can offload responsibility to other parties too. You'll find village roadshow a company with a safety culture that is seen to go WELL above the minimum standard as far as procedures and operations go. They constantly receive feedback from regulators praising their efforts, so it's just how it is. I've said MANY times on here, village are prepared to suffer negative publicity and discontent from guests to implement their style of management and operational control. They aren't prepared to take what is largely seen as a backward step at all. It's just non negotiable. People can argue as much as they want, question why, come up with all kinds of weird theories or even offer to walk in and fix all their operational issues, but at the end of the day it simply comes down to they aren't going to deviate from the core. The ONLY thing you can realistically do to improve things like load times and really slow operations is simply to spend more money. More money on increasing permanent staff. More money to retain existing staff. More money to train all staff. There really isn't any point in going any further while this is still a fundamental issue. You could implement existing policy and procedures far more effectively and probably make changes where needed without deviating from their plans, but you can't do it without addressing those 3 issues. Need more staff. Need more competent staff. Need those you have invested in to stick around. Village have always had a bit of a culture of people can be replaced, and there are more employees out there. So when combined with the dysfunctional and insular management many staff members have experienced over the last 15 years, it's been tough going actually retaining staff across many different departments. VERY tough going keeping the good employees you really want sticking around. They either know their worth and move on, while many suffer burn out, or are driven from the company out of frustration. Business as usual though. They aren't serious about addressing guest satisfaction in the slightest. Not until their hand is forced. I've seen a number of people blame private equity as the reason, but that's really misguided. This took root long before the sale of the company, and more or less the same people are still in charge.

it's so much worse when you have to get under the flooring. 🤢🤮🥴

I see you've played scooby doo mystery goo before. 😂

Ohh god yes they did. It's been a long time coming. Multiple instances, some even making the news, due to guest items dropping into working parts of the ride. Some even caused considerable damage. The other thing always was, scooby is filthy. Probably the worst ride in the park. It's a combination of being inside, and when you combine drive tyres wearing, brake material wearing AND GUESTS TIPPING/SPILLING DRINKS AND GOD KNOWS WHAT ELSE (pro tip, its usually vomit. haha), it really made it a nasty place to be. The amount of foul smelling, usually purple (for some reason) goo that would attach itself to you without you realising it was enough to want to scrub yourself clean everytime. Think of scooby like a big St Bernard dog. They brush past you and leave a trail of slobber without you even knowing it. Next minute, its on your clothes, its in your hair, you might even get some of it in your mouth! 😂 🤮

In this day and age, regardless of how the control system works, there is NO chance of being able to get away with the ride operator leaving the control panel. Just the notion of there not being a person there to respond in the event of an emergency, even if they can't actually do anything other than hit an estop that makes no difference until the train reaches a brake run opens you up to being crucified if another accident happened, especially if it made it to an inquest because of a death. It really brings question to how you operate everything, people start making judgements on if something would have been different if you were at the panel and could respond quicker, even if that's just you being able to generate an e-stop and immediately radio through a code for attendance. The old adage, seconds matter, can actually ring true, plus it also brings in a level of confusion when something actually happens. I've seen people walk right past responders in the event of an incident because they were overwhelmed, so trying to locate someone that by nature is a fluid position (ie, they are moving), it's just another one of those things that can make matters worse. Basically, it's just a slippery slope that nobody wants to die on (argue against) when being put before investigators, so the person in control of the ride is going to stay at the panel. The laws introduced say nothing at all about operations and or how you run a ride. Rightly, they leave that up to the ride manufacturer and trust that the operator (the park) is following their guidelines and knows what they are doing. The accident was just the catalyst to go a bit over the top. Previously, operational procedures basically came from the ride manufacturer and that was largely how things were run. Then, during the mid to late teens, people within management culture thought they knew better, despite none of them actually having any qualifications to support this and started implementing their own controls above the ones specified by the manufacturer. Then it completely snowballs to the point where additional control measures are required above existing devices, and new procedures are invented despite everything being monitored to within tenths of a mm, in addition to which everything has double or triple redundancy. Now its to the point where evacuations are pretty much mandatory any time a safety fault occurs, no matter if its just a protection fault and can be reset fine. Some of the newer procedures put the members of the public at greater risk than trusting the ride control system to be reporting correctly and utilising the judgement of multiple trained/skilled people to make an assessment on the situation and return the train or cars back to the station with people still firmly within their seats. Climbing out of seating or vehicles, walking along catwalks, climbing down ladders, all these things open people up to greater risk of injury than if the ride was still under control. But it is what it is. When you get down to it, there is a lot of contradictory statements/opinions floating around in procedure documents, what's right in one situation is no longer good enough or completely overlooked in another. Ultimately its entirely down to risk avoidance though. If you keep that in mind any time you question why, you start to see it making more sense. Well, maybe sense is a strong word, how about you start to gain some understanding of why things are done the way they are. It's been a progression over the last 10 years. It actually frustrates ride manufacturers because there have been instances where control systems had to be modified or reprogrammed because additions wouldn't function correctly. But it's the village way and nothing is going to change that now.

yeah, but it was always a piece of crap that was supposed to be improved when being relocated and the drive system replaced.

The tape could denote cylinders that need repair/replacement. They used to have a bad habit of cracking the clevis at the bottom of the cylinder mount, that and internally, the spring inside sometimes randomly breaks and it rattles around inside. No real worry about brake operation when open, but during a shutdown you have the perfect chance to inspect them thoroughly.

Wonder if the AOS kitchens are getting an overhaul too.

Good to see lots of original practical theme elements in use again.

The problem is finding something developed with cues for the effects. If the animation is not developed with these in place, you have to sit there for hours/days/weeks, time stamping a text file and developing and testing a cue sheet to program the PLC that runs everything with new sequences to sync with the video. It's not an easy swap out process to build a new show from scratch.

It's pretty well land locked, so there isn't a lot of point in replacing useable track vs conversions to something else. It's not really a super rare launch system. It just uses hydraulic pumps and nitrogen filled accumulators to drive a series of hydraulic motors that spin the drum winch the cables attach too. The problem is when it's not an off the shelf part readily available, so even the manufactures have had to produce overhaul/replacement kits for reconditioning/repairing components right from when the ride was developed. Nobody but the manufacturers supply critical components for ANY of the rides. Even if the component was available locally from another supplier, it's just not how it's done and all responsibility for maintaining compliance/quality rests with the ride manufacturer. The biggest problems in recent years have been problems with the diaphragms sealing internally within the accumulators and keeping the pressure balanced, plus prior to that the chiller system that used hydraulic fluid cycles back through to cool down. Those things were really old and needed replacement years ago. Back when they actually gave a damn about launch cycles, on really hot summers days it was possible to cycle the cars too fast that they couldn't keep the hydraulic oil operating temps under control and the ride used to go into alarm because of it. The only thing that would feel similar to a hydraulic launch would be air. It has the same almost instant acceleration you don't get with electro magnets.

The old buildings behind HSD were actually carpenters sheds originally. Nothing to do with the services for the fireball or anything air related were out there. LPG storage vessel is against the fence further forward towards the gate, while the buildings remaining towards the grass hill behind/beside the new building they put up, cannot be removed easily. There is an energex feeder/substation (one of three in the park) there, while next door is a room full of services cabinets for stepping down and distributing power from the feeder. You don't actually own the substation and it's not something you just pickup and move with how integrated transmission lines are running to other services underground. Those two small buildings stayed right where they were. HSD guys used the carport for tyre related stuff for awhile, the one the superman float end up parked in permanently, but by large part, they have had a workshop tied to the back of house area for ages. It's directly behind the left corner of the set where the "parking garage" is. The reason why you used to see a HSD car frequently parked out the back was because the park took one of the black evo's and used it as a lead vehicle (police car) for the parades for a long time. They originally had a deal with Mitsubishi Australia, the cars were never plated with compliance plates, just build tags, they were never to be registered. They sold a bunch of the back lot cars off about... I want to say 7ish years ago. 3 of the evo's went as a package, but they also sold a few others like the remaining caprice from the police academy stunt show.

It was an example of projection mapping done properly though. The river scene projected on the sand was magic.

The jump car was never recertified, that put an end to that ever being put back in use with a new show. It was still there, mitsubishi lancer body and all up until a few years ago. The fireball was fine for a very, very long time into the new show. Neglect and the fact that it was a major project to remove and replace pneumatic components hidden inside the wall and overhaul the control system that triggered it is what put an end to it. Risk aversive fun police put the brakes on anything remotely dangerous (even in a controlled setting). I don't remember the jump car crashing through walls though? I remember the "launch" side was a fake poster looking curtain that hid the launch ram and the "landing" side was a doorway, made it look like it was the opening to an alfresco. It was a frame with half a fibreglass shell that was bolted to a carriage a lot like a coaster car. There was a curved section of track it ran along below the wall. Not sure they would have wanted anything nearby that could fall onto the track/into the wheels. I'm probably wrong, but was there something in the lower door opening at one stage? between the barn doors that swung open and the same drop style curtain currently in use where the polaris jumps through?

It's 100% how village like it. They basically set the price for how much they are willing to spend and showtime went away to develop a show for it. They were absolutely bleeding money with the first incarnation of HSD. The vehicles alone cost eye watering amounts to modify/maintain/keep running for the show, so when someone came along and struck a deal to take all that off their hands, they saw it as a blessing. It's just another example of their priorities changing during the late early teens. Within reason, when previously continuing to run police academy even after the guest numbers dropped off, then with HSD which replaced it, the main emphasis was on the show quality with running costs being more a secondary consideration. IE, they didn't want to see the guest experience suffer because they didn't provide enough $$$$$ to put on a decent show. Now? I don't think you could say that guest experience is the leading consideration in anything village do.

look up EBITDA reports when Village was still a public company. Literally shows you the operating costs.

Wire ropes get replaced on superman as preventative maintenance. Same as on batwing. You can't see the internal structure as it's actually made up of multiple spiral strands of wire wrapping inner cores, themselves spiral wrapped forming an even larger inner core surrounded by outer spiral winds. Think of it more like multiple wire ropes surrounding multiple inner ropes spiral wrapped around to form the outer. Most of the reasonable cost testing machines run the length of the rope checking for variations in thickness with very fine tolerances or use very powerful magnets checking for deviations which indicate some sort of deformity (usually broken strands). The absolutely unreasonable machines basically xray the rope. Alternatively, as preventative maintenance you can inspect it and replace it well before the next test date is required or the service life is reached. These are the end stops holding the rope packed tightly. They are sandwiched between wear blocks and bolted into position to anchor them to things like the catch car.