Recent content by toofpikk

Worth highlighting that this isn't exclusive to Towers. Sounds like cuts and redundancies have already been actioned in Merlin HQ, and there will likely be more restructuring at the other resort parks and attractions too.

Big 4 attachment to a project doesn’t necessarily bode well. A lot of the cancelled gulf projects had a big 4 involved. A more notable stamp of hope is the involvement of Chris Lange, the former creative lead from Europa who’s been bouncing from success to success in the industry in recent...

Yeah I remember being excited to give this one a go a couple of years back after the retrack, just to come off feeling quite beaten up and absolutely deafened by the tunnel. Really funny reading back through the comments before it was open of us being excited for it, just for absolute dead...

I'd like to do mine slightly differently to the format that seems to have been adopted by you guys above. I didn't think 2025 would be a particularly big year for me. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't huge by any means, but still, I was expecting to do maybe 4 or 5 parks at most. In fact, in The...

Some really excellent points here Josh, quite a lot of open ended discussion points to address. Really interesting to hear about Thorpe's restraint style research. Had no idea about that. I wonder if it were a choice to make the ride feel more intimidating, especially because as you say...

I'm pretty sure I've seen British/European/Alton Archive (whichever one they go by these days) say that much of the archive is in fact not digitised, and they have had to cherry pick items they archive themselves privately as Merlin/Alton have very little interest in doing so outside of...

Excuse the bump, but I was wondering if anyone knows of a POV online that actually features all the effects working on the refurb? I'm struggling to find a video which even features the final drop in all it's grandeur. I went to Blackpool a couple weeks ago with some friends and of all the...

I'm not sure if it's been previously mentioned, but the economic turn the UK has had since the pandemic in comparison to other countries, particularly in Europe may be a reason why Merlin's prices have remained stagnant for so long, and instead of price rises, extensive cost cutting has taken...

It feels safe, and frankly lazy; the lack of innovation, risk or truly new attraction towers has had since wickerman. Toxicator to me is not on par with Ripsaw. Whilst I enjoy Curse, there are quite a lot of other things that could've been done with the space. Nemesis Reborn is an odd one out...

Not much said on here, but AI has been implemented across concept art for Gardaland and food and drinks selections at Alton Towers. It's fair to say the response from fans is quite vocally negative, but frankly I'm surprised it's taken this long. A real shame that there is absolutely no care...

Updated mine at the weekend. 1 Ride to Happiness Plopsaland 2 Iron Gwazi Busch Gardens Tampa 3 Velocicoaster Islands of Adventure 4 Arieforce one Fun Spot ATL 5 Toutatis Parc Asterix 6 The Voyage Holiday World 7 Zadra Energylandia 8 Kondaa Walibi Belgium 9 Phoenix Knoebels...

Frankly, it may be an area wide problem. We noticed there were several spots across Cologne where there was a distinct smell of raw sewage, especially the area near the cathedral. We also noticed it in a couple areas across the park too, but charmingly referred to it as ‘cathedral scent’. I...

Visited the park for the last couple of days. The work done in the past years has killed some of the bigger sightlines across different zones, each area feels far more contained, fleshed out and immersive from ground to sky. I last visited in 2023 so the changes and developments in Klugheim...

Frankly I don't think this isn't true. I believe Dragon's Fury was designed to be a temporary attraction with a life expectancy of about 15 years. Maurer's coasters were heavily modified after the Smiler Crash, and their continued operation past how long they were designed to be up for has meant...

It has been a recent noticeable change, than vibrations found on new coasters are considered something that's rough. I don't remember this being the case 10, 12 years ago; it was almost just an accepted thing for a ride to have a very slight judder as it was breaking in. Nowadays it seems like...