Attraction Source Forum

Didn't the schedule specified in the plans allude to a March opening too?

I'm pretty sure it will open on time, unless something goes wrong during construction that is!

Dan wrote:

bendaboss wrote:What happened to the theory of the theme being a dragon who moves the earth and protects the river (river rapids)?

That's the first I've heard of that theory :-k

This may be a little wrong as i have bad memory (got hit by a car 2 months ago) but i remember when the black spikes where bieng made, that some one thought it could be the back of a dragon, then someone else found a tribal legend about a dragon (on the internet) who made some people sacrifice other humans. the dragon was the protector of a river (which someone thought it could be the protector of the river rapids, river, which would then mean the ride would be in katanga canon) and some other person did more reserch and found out, it had the power to move earth (soil,dirt)which would explain the "ground breaking" slogan. I belive this started on the construction of SW8 forum.

The plans gave us the number of weeks for construction and training rather than a completion date. From this it's been worked out that the estimated opening date would be either the last week of March or first week of April depending on precisely when construction was started. 

Afternoon. hate to bring this back up but the more and more i think about it the more i think might be to do with a wicker man i mean they even said in the plans they are painting the cars wicker brown so far it just sounds like a very brown ride :/ 

Ah, so yeah around opening day. If it's true about it being ahead of schedule as well this points to a March opening.

Hopefully everything stays on track and the attraction doesn't see too many teething issues...

I am starting to think the theme, if the theming structure does turn out to be a wickerman, that the overall theme could be about some ancient pagan burial/worship place like stone henge, but it would be haunted... to be honest I still don't have a clue!

My personal opinion is Tom is on the right track, some speculate Wicker Man themed, some say could it be to do with Skin Snatchers.

I think it will be part of Katanga Canyon & be African themed with the theming structure perhaps being a rockface with a statue carved in it or simply a large statue similar to this below but obviously of African origin.



It would fit in perfect with the general story of Katanga Canyon, I don't know if there is any backstory to Runaway Mine Train but with that going through a rock structure perhaps its a follow on where a mining corporation continues excavation (for whatever reason) and it disrupts a tribe or something along those lines. I mean the sound tunnel although there isn't many ways about it, if you look at it in its current state it looks like the supports you'd find in a mine shaft.

And with Universal Rocks they could do theming such as this:

T0mPr1ce wrote:I just did a bit of research on African tribal myths and legends. One legend stood out for me as it ties in with Katanga Canyon, as well as speculation concerning the SW8 construction.

"The Zambezi River God, or Nyaminyami, is a dragon-like creature believed to command all life on the Zambezi River."

To me, this fits perfectly with the Congo River Rapids and the dragon (which has been speculated to be the theming element). There are many stories about the Nyaminyami, typically revolving around sacracfice to appease it and in order to be allowed access to the river. Villagers seem to go missing when the Nyaminyami is angry.

I'm talking about this what happened to this theory?

Bert2theSpark wrote:Just looked up the Myaminyami on Wikipedia and I found something quite interesting...

Heavy earth-moving equipment roared into the valley and tore out thousands of hundred-year-old trees to build roads and settlements to house the workers who poured into the area to build a dam that would harness the powerful river. The BaTonga’s peace and solitude was shattered and they were told to leave their homes and move away from the river to avoid the flood that the dam would cause.

I think we might have hit the nail on the head hear. I mean we have correctly speculated before with TH13TEEN. And is has been speculated that the wickerman theme is a false rumour to put enthusiasts off...

However I don't really think Towers has decided on which area SW8 is in, It was briefly Mutiny Bay on the website, Before that the park said at a TTSP event last year SW8 was in Katanga Canyon and on the park map it says Gloomy Wood. Again the park might trying to put us off what theme it might be or they just don't know yet...

And this i think it was a perfect theory why aren't we talking about it anymore what happened?

i have just came back from 2 days at alton towers, and the place where i was staying there was a couple of people who work for a company to do with sw8, he was talking about how they are doing 12 hour shifts, we got talking about it and he said "can i let you into a secret, its based on a wickerman and you go through fire" he also said,when he was on the phone ( i was earwigging) that there was a problem with the front seats and that he wishes that his bosses would get a group of people to sort these problems as they come up so him and his team can get on

Was this a construction worker?. I too think it will be a wickerman with fire effects. As for the front seats, i cant see why they would be talking about them at this stage but if so what sort of problems could this be?

As always take what you hear from staff with a pinch of salt. What would a construction worker be doing with front seats anyway, wouldn't that be a problem effects all seats anyway?

Just wondering if anyone had any ideas on how the marketing should go. I liked the viral marketing that Alton went for with the smiler so will that return?

This is 100% Wicker themed, although Aidan caught onto something in his last post. There will be an intersection of African 'spirit' contained within the theme. But it's still pagan-based. Also, to quickly add onto what vinyljunkie commented about the 'contruction worker', it's sort of true. The Wicker structure will shoot flames as the coaster train passes through it.

I hate to be this person, but i'm going to be, but if it was 100% than surely the park would have already confirmed all this information given its their big new roller coaster and would want to create hype for it, or have I missed that announcement

As I said in previous posts, throw tomatoes at me if I'm wrong. I'll publicly stand outside the ride on opening day and sacrifice myself! But this is 100% wicker man and I'll say it again

Also, what does Merlin not announcing anything have to do with the theme? Regardless of lack of announcement, the theme is well and truly signed off well before construction phase begins!

Well given that a lot of things have already hinted towards it, than it is highly likely, but until its confirmed by the park themself than it is purely speculation. I take everything said about this ride with a pinch of salt as Towers have been known in the past to send enthusiasts down the wrong paths

Well, this is definitely no false path created purely for Merlin to trick enthusiasts, I'm just sharing information I definitely know and that's all The thing about this project is, it doesn't really matter if people know the general 'theme', they don't fully know what the theme involves particularly surrounding the ride experience. The ride has barely had a fraction of the media attention previous projects received at this point during their construction phase either. A couple of local papers have brought up the Wicker stuff, but it doesn't cover much ground, so nothing to phase Merlin or ruin their creative streak. Anyway, I'm looking forward to some announcements so that people can start to share their opinions!

Dom wrote:Well given that a lot of things have already hinted towards it, than it is highly likely, but until its confirmed by the park themself than it is purely speculation. I take everything said about this ride with a pinch of salt as Towers have been known in the past to send enthusiasts down the wrong paths

Whilst I completely agree that it's still only speculation at this point, and not totally on board with a lot of the wicker stuff, didn't Merlin file a copyright registration for "The Wicker Man" during the demolition of The Flume? I doubt they'd go as far as to file an entire copyright for the name seeing as we haven't even heard from Towers themselves in this case. As well as that, it was tweeted by a construction firm working on SW8 that the ride was due to be a "Wickerman ride", so it seems unlikely that the copyright is for another Merlin park or attraction.
I'll also put my two cents in on the whole wicker theme seeing as it's come back up again. I strongly believe that if the ride does turn out to be a Wickerman ride, it will have no connection to the movies, but rather have its own back story relating to the Pagan ritual itself.
Edit:
https://trademarks.ipo.gov.uk/ipo-tmcase/page/Results/4/EU016221269
The copyright claim was filed by Lane IP, which represents Merlin on copyright grounds. They also worked with Merlin when copyrighting The Smiler and other recent attractions.

This may sound quite like far fetched but being with thorpe park assuming are teaming up with Universal for fright night would that mean they have some sort of agreement signed for the next few years ? or what ever i was at the cinema today and theres a new horror film coming out called "The Ritual" see you guys are all saying wicker man and being the theme is wood/woods/forest/timber this film has alot going for it :/ (just an assumption as to whats going on with other parks) just to keep the ball rolling

Why would Thorpe Park be teaming up with Universal? :-s

If you mean in regard to the IP it's worth noting that it's been axed from HHN (only the permanent attraction in Hollywood will remain) and that the show isn't a Universal property