Attraction Source Forum

I cannot see how purple is better for first time visitor. Yes its the parks colours but purple for a coaster is just so ugly. Grey, black, dark green, blue and even red, but purple? Yuck! Purple is such a dark sickly colour whereas yellow is bright and fresh.

Can't say I don't agree, although I think I can cope with it. I'm just saying I can see their logic. Consistency is the best way to create that brand image.

The thing is I dont really see purple and gold as their colours. I mean the pipe idea is slowly spreading but its hardly the first thing you think about when someone says Alton Towers. If anything I think that Red, Navy blue and Yellow are more Alton colours.

Which only proves they have a lot of work to do :P
It would be far more preferable if they were still pushing the colours of the 90's though, they clearly had something that worked to the point they can't shake it. Why waste money trying?

At last someone who agrees with me. They had a perfect image back then and people loved it. Tussauds, at the end of their period, started to run out of ideas and seemed to be more intrested on saving money so didnt splash out much. Then they lost customers and thought that re-branding the park would fix this. Now we are left with an mixture of old and new. Merlin are trying to fix this by trying to add yet another re-branding/market scheme, when really all they needed to do was refresh the old one.

Anyways this is seriously going off topic lol

what about alton get a pay to ride simulator of the corkscrew? would be a cool idea.
a mini video before the ride of the history etc would be nice too...

[quote=""seanyboyuk""]what about alton get a pay to ride simulator of the corkscrew? would be a cool idea.
a mini video before the ride of the history etc would be nice too...[/quote]
I have been on funfair simulators that showed a POV of Corky. Just buy one of those! :P

I think they should have kept corkscrew but just spend money on renovating it so feels like new and you dont get a headache when you ride it


RIP corksrew 1980-2008

That would not have made business sense and would mean no £15 million, world first coaster.

Old, out dated, pain inducing rust bucket there for sentimental values, or a gleaming new, ground breaking coaster?

I know which one I'd go for! It was too painful anyway, not to mention outdated and a mass-produced ride still available in many other parks. AT did the best thing by investing in a new, world's first coaster.

[quote=""captain""]AT did the best thing by investing in a new, world's first coaster.[/quote]

I really do hope that you are right.

Unfortunately "world's first" type rides are often remembered for either not working properly or being inferior to the later versions of the same concept.

Nemesis is obviously an exception to that rule, but not Oblivion or Air.

Nemesis was not a first.

Air is the only one of it's kind to stay true to the concept. The Superman clones, Tatsu and so on have gone bigger and higher. They may be better coasters, but none of them are true 'flying coasters' in the way that Air is. The whole point of it is the flying experience, the newer ones just use the possition as little more than a gimmick with the exception of Manta.

Oblivion is a matter of opinion, many people prefer it to the newer ones because of THAT drop and the feeling of fear the theme and scenery produces.

Oblivion has little downtime, and Air used to be down alot, but that was sorted a long time ago now.

Either way, it is better than a Corkscrew coaster, and a very bad example of one at that.

Exactly - I was making the point that AT have done the right thing by investing in a new coaster when Corkscrew was old, uncomfortable and not at all special.

It is a good point but then all new coaster designs need a concept that can be improved upon and developed. Either way, the main thing is that we're seeing investment in an area occupied by an off-the-shelf coaster with something completely new, and I'd happily see a few months down time rather than be stuck with corkscrew. Not that I think there will be too much downtime, I imagine a fair bit of testing of the secret part was done before it was shipped.

Opened 40 Years Ago Today

Alton Towers Resort wouldn’t be where it was today if it wasn’t for the now iconic Corkscrew which opened in 1980.

As part of #AltonTowersTogether, and our own #AltonTowersMagic campaign, we wrote a guest blog for Alton Towers exploring how Corkscrew was the rollercoaster which put Alton Towers Resort on the map.

What are your memories of Corkscrew?

The blog can be found here.

I remember the first time I was finally tall enough to ride this after many trips to the park. The main reason I remember it was because when I went back for a 2nd ride towards the end of the day I was no longer tall enough! Was quite the disappointment but my love of rollercoasters was born