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Thorpe Park | Hyperia | Mack Hyper Coaster | 2024

Coasterfreck

Mega Poster
I would not put it past Merlin to theme this around the Creek Freak IP
I feel like that will be Saw’s eventual retheme when the license runs out or when Thorpe want to stop paying for the renewals of it.

However my dream theming list would be for it to be themed to Platform 15, and use the CCR trains as part of the theming.
 

Matt N

CF Legend
Personally, my suspicion is that whatever this ride is, it will likely see Old Town replaced by a different themed area with a totally new theme.

With Rocky Express and the two kids’ rides gone, as well as Loggers, Canada Creek Railway and Slammer, that leaves Old Town with only Black Mirror, Samurai and Saw, all 3 of which are quite debatable in terms of whether they properly fit into the Old Town theme or whether they’re even within the main body of the area at all; Black Mirror is a more technological theme that I wouldn’t say is overly Western at all, Samurai seems more like a Lost City ride (and I’ll admit I’m always surprised that it isn’t classed as being within Lost City given its proximity to Colossus et al), and Saw has always felt quite standalone to me (in fact, didn’t they actually used to say it was on “Saw Island” as opposed to in Canada Creek?).

To me, it seemed like Canada Creek/Old Town as a themed area had a dagger through the heart when they removed Logger’s Leap and Canada Creek Railway, and I’d argue that the removal of Rocky Express put the final nail in its coffin. Admittedly, I didn’t first visit Thorpe until 1 year before Logger’s Leap’s removal and 3 years after CCR’s removal (it was 2011, wasn’t it?), but from what I can tell, those 3 rides were what made Old Town/Canada Creek in the form that most are thinking of what it is/was. I’m assuming that with Rocky and the 2 kids’ rides now gone, they will close off the main part of Old Town that really made it what it is and make that part of the construction site.

Never say never of course (they could well retain the Old Town theme, for all I know), but with 2022 Old Town due to consist merely of 3 attractions whose link to the area is somewhat spurious, in terms of both location and theme (the actual Western/Canadian village bit will presumably be closed off entirely), my personal suspicion is that they’ll kill the theme off in favour of a new theme for that section of the park to suit whatever the new coaster is.

Merlin have never traditionally tended to integrate new coasters/major investments into existing themed areas anyway, from what I can tell; when coasters are built on land already in use, they usually either opt for the area retheme route (e.g. Thirteen seeing Ug Land get turned into Dark Forest) or the standalone attraction/theme route (e.g. Wicker Man, Saw, DBGT). The only time I can think of where they did go with an area’s existing theme was Smiler. And with Old Town as a themed area kind of lacking its main body from next year, I’d personally guess that the chances of an area retheme for the new coaster are quite high.
 

Coasterfreck

Mega Poster
Saw has always felt quite standalone to me (in fact, didn’t they actually used to say it was on “Saw Island” as opposed to in Canada Creek?).
Officially when the area names were fully reintroduced and prominent in 2015/2016, Saw was classified, along with Samurai, Rocky, Slammer and later Lumber, and Tug in Old Town. I’ve always personally Saw as the Canada Creek coaster.

There was a period of time where the areas did blend out. It doesn’t help that Amity is also split in half with Angry Birds Land.

In other news; Thorpe Park have announced that two virtual consultations will take place on Monday 13th December at 1pm and 6pm respectively, full details can be found here: https://www.thorpepark.com/about-thorpe-park/local-residents/
 

Matt N

CF Legend
Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t that mean that the plans technically won’t be online until the 13th? The website still says it’s going online on the 10th, but it appears that the plans may be 3 days later than we’d thought; I guess if we can’t wait 3 extra days to see the plans, though, then the 1 or 2 years afterwards for the ride to open will be pretty agonising!

In terms of Thorpe’s areas; I’ve never personally thought of Thorpe as a themed areas park anyway, or at least not in the same vein as Alton Towers, Disney, Universal, Phantasialand et al. They strive more to immerse you in individual rides over full areas, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, personally.
 

Coasterfreck

Mega Poster
Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t that mean that the plans technically won’t be online until the 13th? The website still says it’s going online on the 10th, but it appears that the plans may be 3 days later than we’d thought; I guess if we can’t wait 3 extra days to see the plans, though, then the 1 or 2 years afterwards for the ride to open will be pretty agonising!
I think from the way I interpret it the concept plans will go live on the website on the 10th, but this is the extra details virtual ones, considering they are also doing the local residents face to face one on the 9th December.
 

Swat

Mega Poster
Correct me if I am wrong but is this a lot more than what is ususally done for a new ride at Thorpe? I know that consultations will always be carried out but this seem a lot more public than normal. I do not recall this much for Swarm or Saw but I never paid that much attention back then.

Would this indicate that there will be a wider impact to the areas surrounding the park I.e. height/track visiable from the park?
 

Peet

Giga Poster
Correct me if I am wrong but is this a lot more than what is ususally done for a new ride at Thorpe? I know that consultations will always be carried out but this seem a lot more public than normal. I do not recall this much for Swarm or Saw but I never paid that much attention back then.

Would this indicate that there will be a wider impact to the areas surrounding the park I.e. height/track visiable from the park?
Nobody can remember what they ususlly do, it's been so long.
 

JoshC.

Strata Poster
Correct me if I am wrong but is this a lot more than what is ususally done for a new ride at Thorpe? I know that consultations will always be carried out but this seem a lot more public than normal. I do not recall this much for Swarm or Saw but I never paid that much attention back then.

This is different to what's been done before, yes.

In the past, the park used to submit a Mid Term Development Plan (MTDP) to the local council. This would be valid for a 6 year period, and would outline, amongst other things:
-Possible locations for new rides
-The amount of floorspace they expected to increase by
-Maximum height and lengths for coasters they were considering building
-Other possible plans (infrastructure works, etc)

When approved, this made it easier for the park to get approval when building things (they could apply for rides, etc under "reserved matters", which roughly meant the park were saying "You've said we can build something within these guidelines, here's exactly what we want to build").

When an MTDP was submitted, it was open to scrutiny by the council and locals. They could give feedback like with any other planning application that is submitted. And again, when ride plans are submitted, they can also give feedback on the exact details, but (I believe) can't argue against anything that is as described by the (by then) approved MTDP.

An example of this would be Swarm. In the MTDP (submitted in 2010), the park stated that they were thinking of building a ride in the location which would not exceed 50m nor be longer than 850m. When the park submitted plans for the ride (in 2011), it fit these restrictions, so there was no discussion to be had about the actual approval of the ride. However, one thing in the precise plans was that they wanted some of the plane theming in the surrounding lake. Local authorities decided against this, so that had to be changed.


Anyway, there currently is no MTDP. In other words, the park have not sent anything to the council outlining what they want to do over a 5-6 year period. The last one they submitted was in 2010, and that outlined up to 2016. This means if they park want to build anything, they have to submit a full planning application, rather than one under reserved matters.

This in itself is not an issue. The park have done this before with attractions. The last notable one was Ghost Train (since it was outlined in the MTDP at the time), but I think they also did it with Colossus and Inferno too. So the park could do this again.


Would this indicate that there will be a wider impact to the areas surrounding the park I.e. height/track visiable from the park?

Possibly.

As I say, the park could drop in an application tomorrow for a roller coaster if they wanted to. And if it was something a similar scale to, say, Colossus/Saw/Inferno, I see no reason why the council or locals would object to it frankly.

At the same time, it's been a long time since the park have constructed a major addition. Really we are going back 10 years (as Ghost Train was not a major construction job in the same vein as a coaster is). So it could simply be a case that the park are holding these consultations out of courtesy, as opposed to anything else. It could also be something that the the council / a planning company the park work with have requested whilst the park have been in communication with them.

But another reason for such a consultation in such a way is because it's "different". It could be significantly bigger or louder as a ride when it's built. But it could be something else, like maybe the construction process might have affect local's lives (louder than usually, certain roads being affected, etc). It could be something else.

I do think that there's something to this logic though, especially given the rumours going round.


Before ending this post, I want to mention one thing: Stealth. Stealth was mentioned in the MTDP at the time, and the application was submitted under reserved matters. Obviously, this is going back a long time ago, and things were different. Immediate local residents were sent out letters about the application. It was mentioned in the local newspaper. Etc etc. People still complained:

Whilst this didn't cause an issue (since letters had been sent out and everything done properly with regards to those locals), I do remember that there were some issues, with letters being sent to addresses that don't exist, or places which were uninhabitable. Whoops.

That was one of a very few rare circumstance when there's been any sort of friction between the park and locals frankly. The park do have a good enough relationship with those who live immediately nearby to be honest, which is a good thing, and should be good news for this project.


tl;dr - This isn't the norm, and yes this gives some level of optimism we might see something big. But it doesn't 100% mean that yet.
 

Matt N

CF Legend
I had a weird dream last night... That this turned out to be a B&M giga coaster!!!!

Either I need to stop visiting this forum, or I need to figure out who is spiking my drinks... Maybe both 🤷‍♂️
For all we know, that dream could well have been a premonition... in less than a week, we'll know for sure what this is!
 

James F

Hyper Poster
Someone make time go faster. This week has felt like forever. I must be becoming a self entitled enthusiast because I am beginning to dread the aspect of a flyer or S&S axis coaster.

Sent from my SM-A217F using Tapatalk
 

Matt N

CF Legend
Someone make time go faster. This week has felt like forever. I must be becoming a self entitled enthusiast because I am beginning to dread the aspect of a flyer or S&S axis coaster.

Sent from my SM-A217F using Tapatalk
If this week has felt long, then I'm afraid that the 2 year wait for the ride to open will feel like an eternity... I do get what you mean, though; I don't know why, but I feel like this is the most excited I've been to find out info about a UK coaster in quite some time!

We could know at least some info by this time next week, though... it'll roll around more quickly than you expect!
 

Nicky Borrill

Strata Poster
Sorry to double post but:

a) Day off, I'm bored...
b) I've been thinking... Always a dangerous pastime...

There are so many people within the coaster community, including on these forums, who will know exactly what is coming to Thorpe... I appreciate they're not going to risk anything and tell people what is coming... And I fully appreciate that. But I am very very surprised that so far nobody has said anything to try and slow or stop the insane snowballing of the rumour that is the B&M Hyper... If only to manage expectations a little.

Nobody associated with the park wants people to be disappointed with their next big investment... Even if enthusiasts are only part of their audience... If the vast majority of people want a Hyper, think it will be a Hyper, and then it turns out to be something else... There is going to be a whole bucket full of disappointment. So I'm really surprised the Hype train (pun intended,) has been allowed to continue at this pace unchecked...

Add that to the aforementioned increase in levels of public consultation...

And I'm going to change my mind I think, I'm now on the verge of being 100% convinced that this will be a Hyper.

If that news comes through Thurs / Fri @Matt N we want to see pics of you with the jagers out!!! (You are old enough now, right? 🙈🤣)
 

Benenen

Hyper Poster
It's a nice thought but realistically no one with any influence in the theme park industry cares what this forum or enthusiasts in general think. The Thorpe big wigs won't be reading this with any level of concern and by 2023 when it opens it won't matter what some people on a forum were discussing it could be in November/December 2021 or how incorrectly hype the hype train was. This is a great forum and I love reading and posting in it but we're insignificant.
 

Nicky Borrill

Strata Poster
It's a nice thought but realistically no one with any influence in the theme park industry cares what this forum or enthusiasts in general think. The Thorpe big wigs won't be reading this with any level of concern and by 2023 when it opens it won't matter what some people on a forum were discussing it could be in November/December 2021 or how incorrectly hype the hype train was. This is a great forum and I love reading and posting in it but we're insignificant.
It’s not just this forum though, youtube has blown up with it…

Every single influencer with a link to the UK attraction industry, big and small, on every single platform, seems to be predicting a Hyper…

I know GP kids in my tiny village that watch TPW and follow other coaster influencers…

I’ve been asked twice in my pub this last week by different none thoosies what I think to the new coaster coming to Thorpe!

The world is a very tiny well connected place these days… Whilst you’re right about this forum… If park’s PR teams pay no attention to influencers, then that is a huge mistake in this day and age…
 

bob_3_

Giga Poster
Sorry to double post but:

a) Day off, I'm bored...
b) I've been thinking... Always a dangerous pastime...

There are so many people within the coaster community, including on these forums, who will know exactly what is coming to Thorpe... I appreciate they're not going to risk anything and tell people what is coming... And I fully appreciate that. But I am very very surprised that so far nobody has said anything to try and slow or stop the insane snowballing of the rumour that is the B&M Hyper... If only to manage expectations a little.

Nobody associated with the park wants people to be disappointed with their next big investment... Even if enthusiasts are only part of their audience... If the vast majority of people want a Hyper, think it will be a Hyper, and then it turns out to be something else... There is going to be a whole bucket full of disappointment. So I'm really surprised the Hype train (pun intended,) has been allowed to continue at this pace unchecked...

Add that to the aforementioned increase in levels of public consultation...

And I'm going to change my mind I think, I'm now on the verge of being 100% convinced that this will be a Hyper.

If that news comes through Thurs / Fri @Matt N we want to see pics of you with the jagers out!!! (You are old enough now, right? 🙈🤣)

It's like a full community manifestation.
 
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