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Can confirm. I suppose not many enthusiasts have had the chance to experience these yet... I've recently returned from an overseas trip and paid a visit to Energylandia (!!!); I nearly missed the Dragon SFC but got one ride in just before park close and it was a huge surprise. It is a very decent family coaster with great theming, a good kick on the first drop and some nice positives on the helices; naturally it's not super-intense but it fills the niche between all-age attractions a la SDSC and the big thrills of Rivals et cetera. If it's themed well and can pump out a decent capacity with at least two trains, an SFC could be the big sleeper hit we didn't know MW needed. The only question is whether it would be able to "distinguish" itself enough from Escape from Madagascar; the new generation is obviously far superior but they are still of the same family... (No pun intended). Just curious, how would building close to the ground specifically negate a noise issue? Noise is determined by speed not height, and naturally you're going faster when closer to ground level. I agree though, based on first-hand experience, that the hybrids run loud, especially as they get low to the ground. 😎 I wonder how much difference would, say, a Raptor make? Would be interesting if anyone has first-hand knowledge of the decibels a Raptor's "roar" produces. To me, they seem to run quite loud as well, although I can't imagine they would be significantly louder than a rickety old SLC... Except that these are very different ride experiences, so MW has lost something that won't be replaced in its line-up. Where else in the line-up are you going to experience multiple inversions, high positives and a shoulder fracture all in the one ride?

Luna Park Sydney. KUWTA! (Keep Up With The Acronyms) 😃

We highly doubted LPS would see a complete reinvestment. 😉 In the words of our modern-day oracle Justin Bieber, I will never say never.

👀

Would Arkham's plot be large enough to house a ride of this size though? Gotta agree with @DaptoFunlandGuy and I've said as much before. The enthusiast in me would love to see another big, world-class thrill coaster to replace Arkham and if they ended up announcing, say, a Vekoma flyer or an RMC single-rail, I'd be pumped. What the park really needs, and what I'd be just as (if not more) excited for, is a really high-quality, themed family attraction. That's the big hole in MW's lineup. @MARK28's suggestion would clearly be a great fit for the park. There's just the question of size and cost. I hadn't heard that Movie Park Germany was getting a new coaster until he posted this; perhaps this was drowned out by all the large-scale Intamin and RMC openings this year (including those that COVID pushed back from 2020).

Not sure what thread to put this in. Apparently Surfrider is being retracked and new parts have now arrived on site. I don't remember hearing anything about this? Photo courtesy of Gold Coast Theme Parks. Edit: Found the other thread 😅 Mods feel free to delete....

It's definitely some respite and further solidifies that the status of Seven's current affairs programming as the value range 60 Minutes is not changing any time soon.

I flagged their social media ads about the program for spreading false information. 🖕 Having voted "slightly skewed to a negative angle" on the poll, I am dismayed (yet unsurprised) to have been proven so very wrong. If we'd indulged ourselves to put aside Natalie Lowbarr's Razzie Award-worthy existential bitch attack upon disembarking Valravn, or the Bogan Logan wildebeest's smug proclamation that it was "no accident" her daughter's abject disregard for basic slide safety protocol caused injury (regional public schooling, folks), there still may have been a prospective forty-five minutes of impartial and informed insight into the dynamic world of the theme park industry. What we got instead was undiluted revenge porn. The true insult to injury was more than just the flagrant sensationalism and bias, but the complete lack of objective data about ride safety, and the narrative dubiously spun to shit all over the Australian park industry at every opportune moment. It's like their version of investigative journalism and fact-checking was to watch a series of clickbait "Mom NEARLY DIES On Slingshot Rollercoaster Ride OMG MUST WATCH!!!@@#11" videos, whack themselves off, take lunch early and call it a day. I'm not convinced their level of research went any deeper than 30 minutes on Wikipedia and it showed. The exposition into coaster/park history was so hackneyed and there was not a single statistic presented on rate of incidence. Freak accidents happen and those responsible should pay the price. Luna Park did and Dreamworld did. Why augment that to portray our parks as some nefarious conglomerate hell-bent on profiting off injury and death? Why was that even the focal part of the program? Well, we already know the answer. There was an opportunity to maybe end the program by looking forward in a positive light. Growing pains aside, Australia is amid an amusement park renaissance right now. Look at the stacked year we have ahead of us. It's totally unprecedented. Not an iota of airtime (pardon the pun) was spent looking forwards or highlighting the growth our industry has undertaken or the hard lessons it's learning. Instead, we get a ham-fisted montage that convolutes the entire message of the programme , Natalie sadfacing on the bleachers and a segue straight to Grant Denyer in his tinfoil hat and his big-boy pull-on nappies. Hard-hitting. 🎢 1 star out of 5; recommend avoid picking up out of 7 News' heaping discount bin of news programming.

I think most of the responses have been measured. As @themagician more or less said, you absolutely have the right to an opinion. Clearly there are strong feelings to the contrary, so perhaps that's a good prompt to expound on it.

Just saw an ad run for the program. They literally cut from a shot of TRRR to various coasters' POV footage with an interviewee (an enthusiast I think) being quoted "People think theyre going to die on these things". Yes, it's going to play right into the GP's assumption that riding coasters is an inherently risky, life-or-death activity.

Like pretty much everyone else here, strongly disagree with your conclusion that Rivals is an average coaster by world standards. The theming (and the god-awful name), I could take or leave. However, if you want a world-class hyper in terms of thrills, Rivals is right up there. Is it the world's best? That's subjective. But I do think it is in that elite echelon of hypers with Superman The Ride, Expedition GeForce, Mako et al in terms of layout. That's even before you even get to talking about the backwards row, which gives an entirely unique frame to critically analyse the ride. You will find common ground with many here about Movie World's current attractions offering; the general lack of movie magic is something others, myself included, will concur. Oh and, yes, GL is ass. But we all know that. SteVE, Zadra and Fury are all hypers in a broad sense. Is it possible they were removed from the dark ride portion during the refurb and are now part of the queue?

Mick Doohan's Motocoaster has entered the chat.

I imagine that would be a limited-time exhibit, no?

While we're at it, I do have fond, vivid memories screaming my lungs out on WWF and Batman Adventure. The studio tour was a super cool immersive experience and PASS was a stellar highlight. This would have been 2000 or 2001, when I was 5 or 6, so any other attractions I may have went on I don't really recall. I'd like to think I went on LTRR but I'm really not sure. No way in hell I would have been able, or wanted, to do LW and I didn't get over my fear of rides till I was a teen. (I had PTSD from the Bush Beast when I was around the same age). Thinking back on that visit, while the memory is hazy, it does help clue me in to the "classic" MW era that more senior members reminisce and pine for. I might have guessed. So, at best, we're still minimum five weeks from finding out what the next chapter in MW's story is. As @joz mentioned earlier, the big gap in the line-up is a really solid family dark ride. Of course a new coaster to replace Arkham would be great (I'm hoping they have plans for both), but a dark ride would help soak up crowds and fill out the day more. Inevitably, if they're going the theme park resort route, they'll need a greater focus on family attractions going forward and to me that's a smart move. We still don't know anything about the WB Studio Showcase replacement yet, do we?

Is there any chance of more announcements today? Would be a fitting time to unveil the hotel, unless that announcement comes after Hooray for Hollywood.

My memories are hazy; I only visited Sega World once and it closed when I was 5, but what I do remember is the high-tech and futuristic aesthetic. It was a really great family experience the day we visited. I seem to recall a Nickelodeon themed playground but could be wrong? That building was such an iconic part of Darling Harbour's identity and it was a shame to see it go. Where would a new Sega attraction go? More importantly, does Sega have the relevancy now that it did in the 90s? I'd say no way. I think Nintendo would have the best shot at an attraction; just look at the amazing things they're doing with Universal over the next few years. And if it did return down under, I'd be surprised to see it come to Sydney since Barry and Gladys have made the CBD a no-fun zone. In all seriousness, between the demise of this and Wonderland, there's such a gap in the market in Sydney that I'd love to see filled one day. If I was placing bets, I'd say there'll be some kind of theme park attraction near Nancy Bird airport within the next ten-fifteen years.

Was hoping the same thing; Bugs looks great in gold! MW is on Wikipedia's front page now till 10am AEST tomorrow.

Great pics! Isn't it standard practice that station/queue/theming commences after the track has been 100% assembled? Given M1 speed limit is 110, that's the fastest we'll ever see Steel Taipan get launched to. 😉 Also, agree with other comments. No need to jeopardise your own safety - forum reacts are just not worth it.

Little Nipper, Big Dipper, Boomerang and Wild Mouse! I think he means new coasters; the article's wording makes out there are four new ones, so there is a small error unless the Herald Sun knows something we don't.

Going off the animated POV and stats, I don't think Big Dipper will be comparable in terms of pacing and intensity. It's slower and has less whip to its elements. Not necessarily a bad thing either; I think LPS are aiming for a ride that's strong enough to satiate enthusiasts yet still appeases the GP. Although Raptor-like madness would be amazing, it mightn't be the right fit. Hot Racers seem to target a different market; that's a good thing, and Big Dipper's layout looks strong nonetheless.

Nah, my money's still on a shaded seating area to replace Arkham. Fingers crossed!

FWIW thank you for checking back in with us. You don't owe us anything but your time and input is appreciated. Very excited to see what VRTP has next in the pipeline for their parks.

How long before the New Atlantis announcement was Randhawa dropping hints?

I don't think our humble little VRTP have the bidding capacity that Universal does. 😄 Precisely. And even if VRTP suddenly found a pot of gold to buy a HP license, I don't think it'd be the right move. They're never going to be able to do something that Universal can't, and market differentiation is important.

Hey folks, it's been a minute since I was last here! Putting aside the usual cynicism we have for these types of statements, what's Randhawa's track record with making statements to build hype? Genuinely asking here. Also, given we're taking guesses here, we never saw the follow-through on the proposed hotel/resort project from a few years back. Is it possible that's still on the agenda? Would certainly be a carrot on the stick for the international market to come back over the next few years. I kind of don't see the urgency for a replacement coaster for Arkham. We know the gap in their line-up is the family market, so a good, well-themed dark ride that uses Arkham's building could be a smart idea. That, or they basically nuke Kids' WB Fun Zone and start again. Don't get me wrong, a Vekoma Flying Coaster or S&S Axis would be amazing, but it'd make just as much sense business-wise to focus on a more diverse ride portfolio. To my mind, that's what sells the season passes.