Re: New "world's first" coaster at Alton Towers 2013
Vekoma are Acer. They work, sometimes do something new, but, are generally pretty crap. Cheap though.
B&M are Macs. The Macs are solid, awesome things. They're more expensive though.
Except no.
Vekoma are probably the most solid all-round company out there. They produce good rides at good prices, they are young and innovative and they are willing to customise to the exact needs of the client.
B&M are like Mac in that they are so far up their own arse and are outrageously expensive due to choices about "quality" components or methods which don't actually effect the end product from the consumer point of view much at all.
But to say about Vekoma "They work, sometimes do something new, but, are generally pretty crap. Cheap though." is just ...stupid.
PS Macs are ****. I'm on one right now and it's pissing me off with its pretentious aura.
As for the Alton coaster... Genuinely not sure. Here's what you have to remember...
Relationships between manufacturers and rides are
not company wide. Just because Thorpe have a bad rep with Intamin doesn't mean anything. I've heard this rumour that "Thorpe will never buy from Intamin again" several times, and I don't doubt it after the fiasco both with Colossus and Stealth. But this has absolutely nothing to do with Alton, who purchased an Intamin only last year... We see the same thing at the Busch parks, where whilst Tampa quite happily goes to Intamin, Williamsburg threw a hissy fit and bought two rides by other manufacturers Intamin could probably do better.
Secondly, we've been told it's going to be a coaster for thrill seekers. Now, if they are genuinely serious about making this ride intense, it'll be Intamin. But I bet they aren't. They are going to market it as a thrill seeker ride, possibly the most intense thing in the world, but... That won't actually be true. The idea of it being a ride for thrill seekers tells us NOTHING except for who the audience will be in terms of marketing. It tells us that this thing will be a visually scary, adult, intense looking thing - which B&Ms are, probably more so than Intamin actually, but it doesn't tell us anything about the actual ride experience at all.
The other thing to consider is where the hell is this thing going to go? Because, quite frankly, there aren't many places at Alton a non-launching coaster COULD go. Now, if there was ever... EVER a reason to start a "launching B&M" rumour, I think it's Alton, personally.
I think it could be either or, easily - or even someone completely different. But I do genuinely recon we're looking at a launch coaster of some kind out of sheer what on earth else COULD they do?. Mack launch? Who knows. Just my two pennies.
