THORPE: SWARM is Coming

[bkroz]

Like it's sister Alton Towers, Thorpe Park's viral marketing has been a force to be reckoned with as of late. Finally, their promises that WAR IS COMING have revealed their 2012 coaster... And the shadows have been lifted from either side of WAR to revealTHE SWARM. The ride is a B&M wing coaster that seems to carry a similar theme and experience as Gardaland's Raptor - very industrial, a monster on a rampage, apocalyptic, a government theme, lots of near-misses.

WAR IS COMING

The UK's first winged rollercoaster, THE SWARM, takes you on a death defying flight through apocalyptic devastation.

Be picked up and dragged on the wings of THE SWARM as you’re left exposed and vulnerable to the extreme near misses and gut wrenching inversions as it rips through the sky on its mission of complete annihilation.

Experience the unique head first, inverted drop from 127 ft as you are flung into this merciless flight for your life. War is coming...

Spring 2012.

Great to see another really nicely themed, fun, unique attraction.

But one can't help but wonder... Why doesn't the U.S. get cool things anymore? All of these parks overseas are getting B&M prototypes and Intamin prototypes... But I truly can barely even imagine the day when Kings Island gets a B&M Wing coaster. It feels like, despite all the hub-bub about American parks, we're very content with our tall, fast, airtime-filled rides that don't offer much new. Why didn't Dive Machines catch on? Griffon was what, 3/5 the price of Diamondback when it was built? Shouldn't they be a staple in Six Flags and Cedar Fair parks? But they're not... Magic Mountain is truly the only park I can think of offhand that bothers with new ride types. Like the ZacSpin or 4th Dimension. Everything else seems so traditional.

Am I alone in this?

P.S. I really do enjoy the end-of-times theme going on with rides today (again, mostly overseas, but still). Everything has these really intense, industrial, rusted sort of themes. I mean, TH13TEEN, Saw: The Ride, the new Rita, Raptor, Swarm, Apocalypse at Magic Mountain... It's a very heavy, dramatic route to take, but I like it. Meanwhile, in the U.S., snakes and race cars are all the rage.

[TombRaiderFTW]

This looks pretty cool! I like the looks of these B&M Wingriders. They're visually appealing but seem to give a family-friendly ride (based off Raptor reviews). I had assumed that Gardaland's Raptor was the main prototype and therefore that Thorpe's ride would have the first rotating chairs, but it looks like either that rumor was false or B&M/Thorpe decided to opt out. I do wonder if, should Swarm and Raptor do well (i.e., don't get the reputation for vibrating you senseless like Intamin's Wingrider), we'll start seeing more of these installed.

About the U.S. not getting cool things... Truthfully, I think it mostly comes down to the parks not wanting to risk the money and reputation on a prototype that could require modifications and large amounts of downtime in an economy where consumer spending is lessened. Quite simply, why would you risk, say, buying a theoretically temperamental Intamin prototype, when you could buy that B&M Hyper whose predecessors have a precedent for being easily marketed and increasing attendance? Why buy a pneumatic-launch S&S coaster when their arguably most easily marketed ride spends a majority of its time blowing up its motor (ringracer)? Is it better to risk buying an unknown product and risk your customer loyalty by making accidentally false promises about when it'll open, or is it better to be able to say "here's an awesome coaster that will be open on this day, so come ride it, buy your on-ride photo, get a t-shirt, etc."? They're just playing it safe, in my opinion... Though frankly, I can't guess why B&M Dive Coasters haven't taken off. They look pretty cool, and they seem to have pretty excellent downtime records.

Still, do note that there are more parks than just Magic Mountain who are trying new things. Holiday World bought the first Timberliner trains (originally) for 2010 and has spent $9 million on a "first of its kind" ride for 2012. Hersheypark bought (as far as I'm aware) the first Intamin looper with a vertical lift, Fahrenheit, in 2008. Carowinds bought new Vekoma prototype trains for their boomerang in 2009, and Hershey followed suit with theirs this year. Even Kings Island is trying new things... We've got the second prototype B&M hyper trains on Diamondback and a 301-foot tower that seeks wind (most of the time). And all of that is within the last 3 years.

[dudecoasterman]

Even Kings Island is trying new things... We've got the second prototype B&M hyper trains on Diamondback and a 301-foot tower that seeks wind

Thats still not like what they used to do, Kings Island used to be known for its innovation(e.g. first suspended, first stand up, first forward and backward loop, first launched, First wooden loop and First wooden over 200ft, The Beast when it opened was the tallest, fastest and longest coaster in the world) and i do understand that those titles are no longer available, why not use something new like the first stand up wooden rollercoaster, or the first launched wooden coaster(which was on display at IAAPA last year).

[flightoffear1996]

Its cost money to break records. As the price of steel rises so will the cost of the coaster. MF @ CP was 25 million to build and Diamondback 9 years later was 22-23million and MF is much much larger.

[Cpt Crunch]

Is X2 at Six Flags Magic Mountain considered a Wing Rider?

[hausty1983]

I think it was just considered a 4th dimension coaster.

[hausty1983]

That Swarm video is pretty cool how they advertised that

[TombRaiderFTW]

Even Kings Island is trying new things... We've got the second prototype B&M hyper trains on Diamondback and a 301-foot tower that seeks wind

Thats still not like what they used to do, Kings Island used to be known for its innovation(e.g. first suspended, first stand up, first forward and backward loop, first launched, First wooden loop and First wooden over 200ft, The Beast when it opened was the tallest, fastest and longest coaster in the world) and i do understand that those titles are no longer available, why not use something new like the first stand up wooden rollercoaster, or the first launched wooden coaster(which was on display at IAAPA last year).

I agree; however, those examples were also over the course of several owners--none of which are Cedar Fair. The exiting CEO once cited his (literally) biggest risk in trying something new, Top Thrill Dragster, as being one of the biggest mistakes in his career. Not to mention that the suggestions you made, while sounding very cool, are both still risks--there's no precedent for the technology necessary for those sorts of things. Even if someone like The Gravity Group can claim their Timberliners are launch-capable, that doesn't mean it will work perfectly the first time. (I could Koch you up a real story about The Voyage at Holiday World, for example... What was new for 2010 there, again?)

That being said, I'd say the addition of WindSeeker is genuinely noteworthy in this case. Wave Swingers have been around for decades, but a thirty-story wave swinger that's designed to operate in very non-wave swinger-friendly conditions? That's a chance investment. Not as big of one as, say, the first Arrow 4th Dimension, since KI only paid ~$5 million for WS (as compared to the $40 million Magic Mountain's poured into X), but a risk nonetheless.

[The Interpreter]

Son of Beast is not now, nor was it ever, the first wooden coaster with a loop.

Sigh

[kjkjkj]

funny how one word missing can change a whole sentence. I believe dudecoasterman was missing the word "modern" in his sentence, since there were many many looping roller coasters well before Son of Beast

[The Interpreter]

For a while, some claimed Son of Beast was the first successful wooden coaster with a loop, as the earlier examples closed soon after opening due to uncomfortable ride experiences, rider injuries, high maintenance costs and/or lack of repeat business.

[jcgoble3]

And Son of Beast experienced none of that.

Oh wait...

[bkroz]

Son of Beast is not now, nor was it ever, the first wooden coaster with a loop.

Sigh

Yes, but that's not how people speak... In all fairness, I hardly think that's worth a "sigh." It's not as if it's some massive, general-public fueled "fail" that Son of Beast was the first wooden roller coaster with a loop. If I overheard someone say, "Oh, that was the first wooden coaster with a loop," and I said, "Excuse me, sir? Son of Beast is not now, nor was it ever, the first wooden coaster with a loop," and then rolled my eyes, they might think me pretentious... And I would think so of myself, as well. Trivia is interesting, but using it to correct people is sort of... uppity. If my friend said Son of Beast was the first wooden coaster with a loop, I'd agree... I wouldn't say, "No, no, no, it's the first modern wooden roller coaster to incorporate a loop into its circuit." That's a good way to alienate people, I'd wager...

"Longest water coaster? You poor thing, you must never have heard of the ice mountains the Russians used to make? And given that the friction from the sleds melted away layers, was that not a water coaster? Miles and miles longer than Wildebeest, they were!"

[ki lover]

Isn't CP rumored to get one of these in 2013?

[The Interpreter]

GYK:

This.

From YOU.

Really?

Go back and read your Crypt posts. Your parking lot posts. Your posts about structural issues on Son of Beast.

This is a forum. Not everyone knows what you do. Se know far more than you do. I have learned a great deal here. I have also taught a great deal here.

I GUARANTEE many here had no idea that Son of Beast was not the first wooden coaster with a loop.

To not add that knowledge for fear of being pretentious in this setting would be a disservice. Not to mention part of my online persona is to kiddingly be perzactly that. And, that I'm not here to care about what a poster known for long, analytical posts, sometimes based on sound reason, sometimes on nothing more than castles in the air, thinks of my "pretentiousness.".

To Flip Flap back to sort of where we were

12 g's. Yes, 12. That's what they claimed back then. Probably Barnum type hype.

And even Loiuisville.

I'd ecplain far more, and many would learn quite s bit more, things it's taken me many a year to learn, much of it directly from industry sources, many of then now deceased, but I wouldn't want some Internet denizen accusing me of being pretentious.

Nah, I spent all this time on here typing words on an iPhone to make myself look hood and to be an all knowing snob.

Thank you, of ALL people, for your comment. It has made one consider again, on today of all days, why I do what I do. And that's a good thing.

[bkroz]

I have no qualms with the information you have shared. It's that the delivery creates a strangely elitist feeling. I spent all of my time on KIE and not KIC for a few years (I registered here in 2005, but didn't bother posting much till 2009) simply because I felt that when I tried to make a post on here, I was corrected, and not in a kind, mentor-ing way.

Maybe the wording of your post (clearly aimed at the 33-post-count coasterdude) took me back there and I elected to speak out for him and tell them that he is not a total idiot for calling Son of Beast the "First wooden loop and First wooden over 200ft," and that he shouldn't feel looked down on or like he's incapable of being a productive member here. Your presentation, purposefully or not, contained a sense of annoyance at the fact that anyone could possibly think Son of Beast was the first. I didn't think it was necessary or welcoming, so I mentioned it.

I'm happy for the information you share, and perhaps if you ever do post with a sense of superiority in this particular topic, it's deserved. My only goal was to help alleviate the feelings that I know posts like that can create. You know I've always defended the new people here and tried my best to keep them sticking around to develop into great members. As part of that, I think it's okay to say "All good points, coasterdude, but did you know Son of Beast was not the first wooden coaster with a loop?" Is that so wrong?