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Chengdu Wanda City | All Speeds | Taron Clone | 2021

Very interesting! Should certainly be a good ride, but as the embedded post said; it will be interesting to see how much of an impact Klugheim and the themed environment surrounding Taron really has on the ride experience!
 
There does still look to be some theming if you look more closely at the rendering, but it certainly doesn't look as in depth as Klugheim. Chengdu Wanda City might surprise us, though!
 
Nice, from reading through the coasterfriends forum page, it looks like it is replacing the original layout which was like this:
16730188_1640765972895461_42306867816057714_n.jpg
Fair to say the Taron clone is an improvement!

Also it seems like construction started around spring this year; they don't seem to have an opening date in mind.
 
The more I think about it, the more it's bothering me. Maybe it stems from the company being sold on or whatever, but it's already marking a decline in Wanda.
If you think about what they've been doing up until this point:
World's biggest custom GCI.
Massive custom Intamin Hyper.
Massive custom Intamin triple launch.
Custom duelling tilt coasters.
Whatever the hell that amazing custom multi spine thing is.
Custom drop-track coaster.
That custom thing in the mountain with backwards sections.
Even custom SLCs.
Big, bold and brand new layouts across the board. Stuff that should get us lot excited.

Peet said:
clone is an improvement
Click to expand...
But then this happens and shows that it's not worth them trying. Whatever lads, just chuck a Taron in there, that'll do.
 
HeartlineCoaster said:
The more I think about it, the more it's bothering me. Maybe it stems from the company being sold on or whatever, but it's already marking a decline in Wanda.
If you think about what they've been doing up until this point:
World's biggest custom GCI.
Massive custom Intamin Hyper.
Massive custom Intamin triple launch.
Custom duelling tilt coasters.
Whatever the hell that amazing custom multi spine thing is.
Custom drop-track coaster.
That custom thing in the mountain with backwards sections.
Even custom SLCs.
Big, bold and brand new layouts across the board. Stuff that should get us lot excited.


But then this happens and shows that it's not worth them trying. Whatever lads, just chuck a Taron in there, that'll do.
Click to expand...

Interesting point actually, I'm curious to find out if that's only a temporary blip or a more lasting trend.
 
I wouldn’t call replicating the best coaster in the world a bad thing?

Especially because it looks like the themeing will still be outstanding - this is Wanda after all!

Nevertheless this is in deep China we don’t really need to worry about overlap.
 
Isn't Wanda the company building a huge mountain around a B&M wing coaster? If so, I agree with what @Ben said; Wanda certainly look like they know how to build awesome theming, in my opinion! In fact, I'm going to be optimistic and guess that this might well have theming to rival the original Taron!
 
HeartlineCoaster said:
The more I think about it, the more it's bothering me. Maybe it stems from the company being sold on or whatever, but it's already marking a decline in Wanda.
If you think about what they've been doing up until this point:
World's biggest custom GCI.
Massive custom Intamin Hyper.
Massive custom Intamin triple launch.
Custom duelling tilt coasters.
Whatever the hell that amazing custom multi spine thing is.
Custom drop-track coaster.
That custom thing in the mountain with backwards sections.
Even custom SLCs.
Big, bold and brand new layouts across the board. Stuff that should get us lot excited.


But then this happens and shows that it's not worth them trying. Whatever lads, just chuck a Taron in there, that'll do.
Click to expand...

I agree with you. Custom layouts are always more exciting, no matter how great the layout you’re cloning is. A custom layout gives you a reason to visit a park that no other park has; to try THAT new thing. Even if it’s similar to something that’s been built before, it’s still different, and there’s something inherently more exciting about that. Hence, my heart almost always drops a bit when I find out somewhere’s new coaster is actually a clone, even if the original is as great as Taron. In fact, maybe it’s even slightly more annoying when such a great coaster isn’t unique anymore?

As much as cloning obviously makes sense for parks / manufacturers to do , as a nit-picky enthusiast, it can be slightly irksome :p
 
Are people actually being disappointed with a Taron clone? I mean, it sounds like a coaster whose awesomeness should be spread to more countries. Maybe it won't quite be the same without Klugheim's themeing, but I don't see that as a major concern. It seems like the park wanted to fit a coaster within a specific footprint and then Intamin suggested that one of their earlier designs could be replicated, saving a small fortune in design costs. Or maybe park representatives had heard about Taron's fantastic reception and outright asked for it to be copied. At any rate, if there's one coaster I'd happily see cloned, it has to be Taron. It even fits into my notion that Taron is basically what Rita evolved into after ten years of technological progress. Rita was also cloned.

Besides, it's not like the park will care that there's an identical coaster somewhere else in the world. The number of people who will have ridden Taron before coming to ride this will probably amount to somewhere in the vincinity of one per million guests.
 
^ Rita has aged terribly. Considering the likes of Storm Runner and Maverick opened a few years later, and the likes of Taron in recent years - Ritard is now just a massive waste of space.
 
Yes 'people' are disappointed and yes personally I would call it a bad thing.

It shows a lack of creativity and new ideas in an industry that thrives on creativity and new ideas. It may be a small step, but it's a step in the wrong direction and it sets a bad example.

I don't personally buy the argument ‘no one in Chengdu has ridden Taron so it doesn't matter, it's good for the park’, because I have no vested interest in that single park.

I'm talking about things on a much grander scale - The Wanda brand was keen on innovation and had a ridiculous amount of money to spend on it and now I worry they try any more.

I'm also talking on a purely personal level. I'll have less new things to look forward to from them. I'll probably ride both and it will probably bother me.

I could put a positive spin on this and say I can come back to tell you all its better than Taron because I like the park more. So there's something to look forward to.
 
Eh, I think this specific example of cloning is bad because I assume Wanda has the money to get something original. I think cloned coasters in general though can be a good thing. If a smaller park that can afford a clone but not a custom designed coaster, that's still one more coaster in the world.
 
Taron seems like such an awkward ride to clone. If its an exact clone of the support structure and track they would need to recreate the same mess of a terrain - Taron is built on 11 different levels.
Surely there's some other compact layout that'd be easier to clone. And Wanda should have the money for something more unique.
Plus looking at the overviews of the park they aren't exactly lacking space that they'd need such a compact ride. Can only assume this was a case of the park asking outright for a copy.

Well at least they are doing a different theme. Will be interesting to see.
 
While i don't know either way if this is happening right now just a word of warning.
Wanda's early concept art and Chinese concept art in general is notouriously random and inaccurate. Some examples from previous parks include

Wanda Harbin plans showed Blue Fire Clone - Got Golden Horse SLC
Victory Kingdom plans showed Xcellerator Clone - Got Golden Horse SLC
Wanda Wuxi plans showed Intamin launched coaster like TTD or KK - Got B&M Wing Coaster
Wanda Guangzhou plans showed Intamin launched coaster like TTD or KK - Got weird Intamin sitdown/inverted racing coaster
Happy Coast Shunde plans showed Wooden Coaster - Got Golden Horse Junior Coaster
Wanda Hefei Plans showed Premier Full Throttle clone - Got Intamin LSM coaster
Lewa World Plans showed Expedition Ge-Force clone - Got Mack looping hyper
Wanda Wuxi plans showed Intamin Impulse - Got moved to Wanda Chongqing after reshuffle

However Wanda do tend to have 2 rounds of Concept art for each park. An early one which shows general areas and random coasters that give an idea of what coming and a second round when things have been finalised. This appears to me to be an example of a second round so perhaps Taron 2 is indeed coming. Just saying don't take it as confirmed gospel quite yet.

As a secondary note: The Intamin reference list from January this year had this ride as a tower launch coaster seen in the original plans (Launches vertically up the top hat kind of like wicked) Intamin havent made public a more recent reference list but it was certainly originally sold as a the tower coaster seen above.
 
Seems the park have pretty much confirmed the Taron Clone now. although the stats are a little different. They are still within the range of Chinese stat fudgery.
7687e6db6a8bc9846964b41bf50_p24_mk24.jpg

http://sc.leju.com/news/2019-03-08/10016509603767674264672.shtml

Just as an example the stats quoted on this page are 1318m vs 1320m long, a speed of 110km/h vs 118km/h and a height of 32m vs 30m.
I wouldnt read into them to much though.

Opening date is set for May 2020 as well.

In seperate news Vertical construction of the ride is expected to kick off next month although the park itself has been going up for a while now.
 
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