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Blackpool Pleasure Beach | Icon | Mack Multi-Launch

Will

Strata Poster
I especially like the launch noise :) As I'd have said a few years ago 'Want!'
I'm not a fan of Mandy's way of doing things due to her complete disregard for history, but praise where praise is due, it's nice to see a PR campaign I can actually believe in.
Actually invest in an attraction and it will basically promote itself.
 

airtime_uk_ash

Mega Poster
Just read this on the official facebook page in the comments... "doesn't look anywhere near as good as the big one" now I have more respect for the big one than most but if icon isn't better than a 24 year old arrow hyper coaster famous for being rough and having no airtime I give up.

Such a shame the UK industry is so used to gimmicks. Icon could well end up being the best coaster in the country but a commercial flop ..l
 

Temleh

Mega Poster
I’m sure it won’t be a commercial flop. They could’ve built a 500ft, 200mph coaster and some people would complain it were too short etc.

I have faith in Rule 5 who’re doing the majority of Icon’s marketing. We’re probably a month or so off seeing a TV ad, lets hope it’s good! :)
 

Smithy

Strata Poster
It could flop, let's be fair. The UK general public have had years of WORLDS FIRST ONLY ONE IN THE WORLD YOU HAVE TO RIDE THIS NOW OR YOU'LL DIE and, avoiding the chicken/egg argument for another tie, that sadly is how the market has been in recent years.

It remains to be seen if a good, solid ride can start to change that perception, or indeed if it will be enough to draw people in to visit BPB.

If I'm honest? I don't think it will have that big of an effect down this way, regardless of the marketing of it. I don't think people are going to drive up the M6 in their numbers for a ride that isn't the biggest, the tallest, the fastest etc... But that is my own cynical pessimistic view of it, and I'd love to be proven wrong. Whether it can draw in more people locally, or bring back customers from previous years who may not have visited the park for a while, that'll be a better test and I think they'll probably succeed in increasing their visitors in that demographic.

If they built a 500ft accelerator out over the Irish Sea, 100% they'd see a massive climb in visitor numbers, especially down this end of the country. People would flock to ride the new tallest, fastest, scariest coaster and tell their friends all about it.

But then they'd not go back to the park. If, and this is the crux of it, they can get enough people in to ride Icon and realise what a great ride it is, they can encourage people to visit not only for the first time, but to go back and want to ride it again.
 

Sandman

Giga Poster
Just read this on the official facebook page in the comments... "doesn't look anywhere near as good as the big one"

The reason it won't be a commercial flop is for that very reason. People are pre-judging it before riding. The GP can't "recognise" a gimmick here, which is what I think many people out there expect from the amusement industry, so it doesn't seem as "good" from a PR standpoint, which makes sense. That leaves an element of surprise for when they ride it, because it will clearly ride better than it looks... that's the whole point of a rollercoaster... ride it!
 

Sandman

Giga Poster
If I'm honest? I don't think it will have that big of an effect down this way, regardless of the marketing of it. I don't think people are going to drive up the M6 in their numbers for a ride that isn't the biggest, the tallest, the fastest etc....

The British public are too pessimistic not to try it just to have a moan. I think it might not be an instant like blow up type success, it'll be like a sleeper hit. Got to bare in mind what limited coaster selection most of these people have been on, this is the closest thing the GP will get to Helix.
 

CrashCoaster

CF Legend
But what if this puts them off from going out to ride it in the first place?

This comment about Icon I found on Facebook pissed me off no end:-
It looks crap! It's basically the big one without the huge drop... 16million for that ...
 
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Sandman

Giga Poster
I don't think the GP will be put off riding it just because it's not tall, some people just like to brandish their opinions all over the internet nowadays... makes 'em feel important.
 

Smithy

Strata Poster
The reason it won't be a commercial flop is for that very reason. People are pre-judging it before riding. The GP can't "recognise" a gimmick here, which is what I think many people out there expect from the amusement industry, so it doesn't seem as "good" from a PR standpoint, which makes sense. That leaves an element of surprise for when they ride it, because it will clearly ride better than it looks... that's the whole point of a rollercoaster... ride it!

But they won't go to the park and ride it. That's the point. Look at ATI's post for a perfect example of that. Because it doesn't do the "biggest/tallest/fastest", some people just aren't interested because they've been conditioned to think that a good ride has to have those features.
The British public are too pessimistic not to try it just to have a moan. I think it might not be an instant like blow up type success, it'll be like a sleeper hit. Got to bare in mind what limited coaster selection most of these people have been on, this is the closest thing the GP will get to Helix.

The general public don't know what Helix is. You could chuck Helix or even Taron in the middle of BPB and people would probably say it looks ****. As I said above, hopefully the likes of Icon and Wickerman start to change the public perception that a ride HAS to be biggest/tallest/fastest to be good and word-of-mouth feedback about how good it is starts to convince nay-sayers to give it a go.
 

sandgrown

Mega Poster
But they won't go to the park and ride it. That's the point. Look at ATI's post for a perfect example of that. Because it doesn't do the "biggest/tallest/fastest", some people just aren't interested because they've been conditioned to think that a good ride has to have those features.


The general public don't know what Helix is. You could chuck Helix or even Taron in the middle of BPB and people would probably say it looks :emoji_poop:. As I said above, hopefully the likes of Icon and Wickerman start to change the public perception that a ride HAS to be biggest/tallest/fastest to be good and word-of-mouth feedback about how good it is starts to convince nay-sayers to give it a go.

I agree with this. However, the Pleasure Beach have been guilty of pushing this attitude as much as anyone. When it was Geoffrey and not Mandy in charge, he was very keen on pushing superlatives for ride descriptions. The Revolution was the first looping coaster in the UK (right?), the Log Flume was the longest of its type in the world, the Big One was the tallest and fastest, and so on. Merlin's advertising team then pushed that to the next level but it's not all their fault.

In a perfect world BPB could do a bit of both - a record breaker here, and a purist ride there, but I can't see where the money will come from to do anything major after Icon. I hope it's a success, and I hope the "slow-burner" theory is right. I feel a touch pessimistic right now though. That's why I hope it can stand on its own merits, even if it's just for the enthusiasts. The real disappointment will be if it doesn't get anywhere near Taron and Helix, nor offer the Kingda Ka thrills your average kid in the street wants.
 

Smithy

Strata Poster
Yeah it's all a bit chicken or egg, you can blame the public for only wanting gimmicks or you can blame the parks for relying on them as a USP, it's probably a bit of both.

Slow burner is actually the perfect way to sum up how I think (and hope) this ride will go. I'm quietly confident that when people ride it, they'll appreciate the quality of it and be enticed to encourage others to try it too (speaking from experience too because before I'd ridden Balder I was no fan of woodies, now it's my go-to when people ask for my favourite and I try my best to convince them how good they can be) which should help them draw people in. It's just getting that initial wave of people in in the first place.
 

SilverArrow

Certified Ride Geek
The wickerman povs got similar comments. (Didn't properly watch them but saw comments.) People saying it looked crap and boring and basically the same as thirteen etc etc. Apparently they also expected to actually be singed by fire too.

The UK public are not familiar with airtime or airtime-focused coasters which both icon and wickerman are. Heck, even Orlando had minimal airtime before mako so the average Joe is just going to think height/inversions/speed = a good coaster.

Let's hope the UK gets a nice introduction to airtime this year. Finally.
 

Pear

Strata Poster
If Wickerman is supposed to be an airtime focused coaster then it really fails at that lol

Maybe if they named it "The Bigger One" instead of Icon people would think differently
 

RevolutionRuleZ

Mega Poster
What is even funnier about this is the same members of the public were calling the Wild Mouse dangerous and too rough.

You know, the Wild Mouse that had a top speed of 14mph and a high point of around 35ft was too much for the little snowflakes, yet this, with its 50mph launches and almost 90ft drops isn' enough....muppets.
 

Pokemaniac

Mountain monkey
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
What is even funnier about this is the same members of the public were calling the Wild Mouse dangerous and too rough.

You know, the Wild Mouse that had a top speed of 14mph and a high point of around 35ft was too much for the little snowflakes, yet this, with its 50mph launches and almost 90ft drops isn' enough....muppets.

Those are very probably completely different persons, that we lump together since they both belong under the umbrella term "GP". Some faint at the sight at anything more intense than a merry-go-round, others want as much speed and height as possible. But since they're both non-enthusiasts, we tend to regard them as completely unison.
 

Sandman

Giga Poster
Thing is, comments on Facebook don't give us a realistic indication of how the ride will do. I mean, yeah there are people who will say it doesn't look as good as "such and such" on Facebook. That's not the general consensus really though. Also, a lot of those moaners probably have no intention of visiting Blackpool regardless, others will STILL come out despite their criticism (that's the world we live in). To be honest, look at the droves that turned up for nearly every late night close at BPB... essentially just to ride the same old rides they've been going on for 20+ years. A new major coaster (regardless of gimmick) will go down well. It's not like we get massive new coasters every year, so not like Icon has a HUGE standard to meet.

The general public don't know what Helix is. You could chuck Helix or even Taron in the middle of BPB and people would probably say it looks :emoji_poop:..

The point I was making above was that in terms of solid overall coasters, this is the closest the GP will get to something that goons mutually adore (aka Helix). I actually remember in 2007 BPB was pretty rammed with Infusion opening, so I'm not too doubtful that Icon will pull in a crowd...probably more so in Summer when everybody is looking for a day out etc.
 

SilverArrow

Certified Ride Geek
If Wickerman is supposed to be an airtime focused coaster then it really fails at that lol

Maybe if they named it "The Bigger One" instead of Icon people would think differently
Well most good woodies feature some kind of airtime. Whether wickerman actually has any if another story.
 
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Matt N

CF Legend
Wicker Man apparently features some good moments of airtime according to those who have ridden.

Anyway, one thing we can reassure ourselves about with regards to Icon's reception by the general public is that people commenting negative things in a Facebook comments section probably won't be riding. Even if they are, then I think that the main problem is that we in the UK haven't really had any major coasters lately that have disproven the general public's theory that rides are only worth riding if they are the tallest/fastest/longest etc. A lot of British coasters built in recent times have had some sort of USP/gimmick associated with them. I don't think the GP can really be blamed for having that mentality when the majority of recent coasters in Britain have had that sort of mentality in the design stages. I would more blame Alton Towers/the Merlin parks for the GP having that mentality, as they seem extremely desperate for firsts in their rides. (See Galactica/Wicker Man for reference) I would guess that if you showed the British GP a video of great-looking coaster like Mako, Taron, Helix etc. they would be underwhelmed. For example, if an American watched a POV of Lightning Rod at Dollywood, their response would probably be something like "Wow!" "Looks amazing!" "I so need to ride that!" or similar, whereas a British person watching the same POV would probably go something like "Oh no! It's wooden! Wood is dangerous!" or "Where are the loop-the-loops?" or similar. I really hope that Icon and Wicker Man banish these theories and prove to the British public that records are not everything. While admittedly, the GP are a lot more intelligent than enthusiasts often credit them for, there are some who still live by this mentality. Is it the same in other major countries, or is it only the UK?
 
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