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Dreamworld announces Wave Swinger, Dreamland (DreamWorks retheme) and new coasters


Ashley Jeffery
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On 11/3/2023 at 10:19 PM, REGIE said:

The thing is though everyone working on the logos promotional bits and signs would be from a university like culture where it’s all refined and by the books.  It’s would be near cloned from something else. they can’t think out of the box, that’s not what they were taught.

Fair bit to un-pack here.

I think you're assuming that because most firms with kid brands have very safe and consistent design aesthetics, then that must be the result of an ill-conceived notion that all artists go through some sort of George Orwellian brainwashing process when they get an arts degree.

Just to be clear, I'm a creative who didn't do an arts degree but have plenty of friends who have, and firms will hire them because the formal training basically says "this person knows the basics, so there's minimal risk to them cocking up the job". Take that sign for example, do you know the difference between RGB and CMYK colour spaces? Maybe you do, maybe you don't, but if you went to uni and did graphic design, you definitely will, and that formal understanding means that when the sign goes from the digital space to actually being printed, the final result won't be dramatically different to what was on-screen.

Sometimes, if you don't have that formal training, and you don't know the fundamentals, then something like a misunderstanding in the aforementioned colour spaces might mean that a whole sign might need to be redone, costing tens of thousands of dollars.

On 11/3/2023 at 10:19 PM, REGIE said:

But if you think about it They could use a lot of salvaged materials and parts that could make a more interesting sign.  That’s what people building theme parks would have done in the 50s-80s. See the in house built theming and what charm it had.

This brings me to my next bit - risk. When parks were built in the 80's, you could pull the rusted tin off old farm sheds to make a themed land (a thing that actually happened when Dreamworld built Gold Rush County) and no one would bat an eye. You had private businesses with very few stakeholders and plenty of low-cost, high skilled labour combined with an abundance of raw materials in an economic environment where everything that was being built was new to the market and was amazing purely just because it existed at all in the first place. As a result, this meant that experimentation was easy because the risk was low - if Dreamworld built something that was junk (like the first Mine Ride) they could just gut it and replace it with something else.

Today the landscape is different. Customers are way more aware of global standards in quality and folks expect more. Put another way, you can't expect an OG Nintendo console to entertain a family who's used to a Playstation 5. And in order to do that, you need to build bigger and more complicated things to meet demand. And they require more skilled labour, which cost more because of our macroeconomic conditions. And because the cost of materials is substantially higher, building anything is incredibly more expensive. And these firms have wayyy more stakeholders that expect a standard rate of return on their investments to bankroll these bigger attractions. And all of a sudden, the amount of risk and cost is massive, right?

And so now you've got a multi-million dollar project with a thousand things that could go wrong and I'm sorry to say, but I wouldn't risk the whole thing on a dodgy bit of tin falling out of a roof and hitting a guest or having the look and feel of signage go tits up because I cheaped out on labour.

By extension, businesses become so risk-averse that it culturally hampers the business and the culture becomes disconnected from business outcomes or the wants of the consumer. But that doesn't mean universities aren't teaching kids to not think outside the box, it usually just means those at a high level are just trying to keep their jobs.

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Just now, REGIE said:

Have they done anything else in Australia 

The one at Luna Park Sydney is also made by P&B. In fact, it is the exact same model as the new one at Dreamworld so you can expect a similar experience. Also, another good thing is both have high capacity with 64 riders.

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Random question for flat ride thoosies, how do you tell the difference between a Zierer one versus a P&B one?

I mean with coasters you can tell the difference between a good and bad manufacturer because the good ones are smoother and have better shaped elements.

But is this the case for a simple spinning flat ride like this? What's the point of difference.

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18 hours ago, Gazza said:

Random question for flat ride thoosies, how do you tell the difference between a Zierer one versus a P&B one?

I mean with coasters you can tell the difference between a good and bad manufacturer because the good ones are smoother and have better shaped elements.

But is this the case for a simple spinning flat ride like this? What's the point of difference.

Generally by the look of them, the Zierer ones tend to have a bit more of a traditional look to them compared to the P&B ones. Having ridden both, I find the Zierer ones to be a little bit smoother in operation. However out of all the companies that build them, I'd say those 2 are the best. The biggest difference is the base of the ride, the Zierer ones tend to be more of an octagon shape and the others tend to be longer.

I will admit though, Volare at Luna Park is a very very good looking unit and certainly has a lot of that classic charm either way so I'm hoping that Dreamworld's version is of similar quality so I'm happy either way.

image.thumb.png.cf04a5c3ee48865decac4388116e422b.png
Zierer Model

image.thumb.png.84844c6eb271831a6a70653b8ee6eeb9.png
Preston and Barberi one

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On 17/03/2023 at 11:24 AM, New display name said:


Installation of the Preston & Barbieri, “Flying Swinger 64” and associated foundations, buildings, water features 🤔 hard and soft landscaping. 

 

Too expensive to pull the fountain plumbing out, just turn it into a small water spout near the ride instead 

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In isolation, this looks great - love the consideration for the cladding and Victorian-era architecture design features. My worry is how crammed this will be in reality. I've had a sift through the tender and the greenwashing to play up the aesthetics and the lack of consideration for neighbouring structures or sight lines (or flow for that matter) are of particular concern. There'll be two sets of switchbacks basically hit you the second you walk in. 😕 

Edited by Slick
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