Heide Park | Flug Der Dämonen | B&M Wing Coaster

[Darren B]

Re: Heide Park | Unknown | B&M Wing Coaster

^ The Merlin Creative Developments Team, led by Candy Holland, are responsible for them. Well, at least the themes and storylines are.

I've heard the name Candy Holland being bounced around by enthusiasts, and always in a positive manner, which leads me to believe that she doesn't actually decide on the coaster types but just on the theming.

You can't really fault the theming of the rides, but with The Smiler and Saw the words 'Polish' and 'Turd' come to mind.

 

[Lofty]

Re: Heide Park | Unknown | B&M Wing Coaster

The decision to coaster type will be decided from a board basis. It'll be through the highest levels of each park in liaison with the highest levels of Merlin.

 

[Ethan]

Re: Heide Park | Unknown | B&M Wing Coaster

^ ... And then I guess they pass it over to Candy and the crew.

 

[coasterdude_1]

Re: Heide Park | Unknown | B&M Wing Coaster

The decision to coaster type will be decided from a board basis. It'll be through the highest levels of each park in liaison with the highest levels of Merlin.

Usually it'll be up to park management to come up with a proposal. The board will then approve or disapprove the proposal. Perhaps they get the option to pick between a couple of proposals, but board time is typically highly limited so the discussion will be kept realtively brief at this level - remember, Merlin have 94 attractions to manage

 

[TheCoasterCruiser]

Re: Heide Park | Unknown | B&M Wing Coaster

Pretzel thing is done.

 

[CookieCoasters]

Re: Heide Park | Unknown | B&M Wing Coaster

That just looks so weird (In a good way)

 

[Lofty]

Re: Heide Park | Unknown | B&M Wing Coaster

The decision to coaster type will be decided from a board basis. It'll be through the highest levels of each park in liaison with the highest levels of Merlin.

Usually it'll be up to park management to come up with a proposal. The board will then approve or disapprove the proposal. Perhaps they get the option to pick between a couple of proposals, but board time is typically highly limited so the discussion will be kept realtively brief at this level - remember, Merlin have 94 attractions to manage

They also have managers and directors of each section of the entertainment companies' portfolio. Wax, Theme Parks, Dungeons', Sealife etc...

 

[MouseAT]

Re: Heide Park | Unknown | B&M Wing Coaster

Does anybody know if the person(s) responsible for Krake and (unknown Wingrider) are the same decision makers for the UK parks and Gardaland? Or is it done on a park by park basis? Because we seem to be getting short changed in the UK, with the exception of The Swarm we've received 2 sh1t Eurofighters and a family coaster in the past 4 years, whilst Heide are getting the good stuff.

The UK Merlin parks are all ultimately under the control of Nick Varney, who apparently shoots down anything that doesn't have a "unique selling point" that's less than a sentence in length. The international parks must be under different management, because there's no way Nick would approve Krake or this ride in the UK.

The John Wardley video thread at viewtopic.php?f=29&t=36642unread actually covers this subject quite extensively, and I'd strongly recommend checking it out if you haven't already. It explains at great length why we're getting such **** rides from Merlin in the UK right now.

 

[Lofty]

Re: Heide Park | Unknown | B&M Wing Coaster

^ That's not true - Nick is overall any single Merlin project that's happening. It IS his company afterall.

 

[bmac]

Re: Heide Park | Unknown | B&M Wing Coaster

Oh my that looks absolutely fab.

 

[Screaming Coasters]

Re: Heide Park | Unknown | B&M Wing Coaster

Yup, Nick has the final say on anything, although I'm sure their investors such as Blackstone would have a say also. But I agree, we are getting some utter tripe in the UK.. Swarm being one of them.

 

[rollermonkey]

Re: Heide Park | Unknown | B&M Wing Coaster

Anyone else finding that headchopper a bit close?
:--D

 

[Screaming Coasters]

Re: Heide Park | Unknown | B&M Wing Coaster

Oh nooo, all the water dummies lost their limbs!

 

[ignace]

Re: Heide Park | Unknown | B&M Wing Coaster

I love Heide Park. It is my favourite Merlin Park so far (only visited Thorp, Heide, Lego Denmark, Lego Windsor, chessington and some sealifes/tussauds/amsterdam dungeon/Earth explorer). This coaster looks great. It will be a mess of track in that corner, and I miss the old Wildwasserbahn (21 meter drop, highest classic flume of Europe?), but this ride looks like a great replacement.

 

[Mark9]

Re: Heide Park | Unknown | B&M Wing Coaster

Fit.
Does anybody know if the person(s) responsible for Krake and (unknown Wingrider) are the same decision makers for the UK parks and Gardaland? Or is it done on a park by park basis? Because we seem to be getting short changed in the UK, with the exception of The Swarm we've received 2 sh1t Eurofighters and a family coaster in the past 4 years, whilst Heide are getting the good stuff.

I've always assumed its down to competition. Take the UK, The Smilers competition this year has been a Volare at Flamingoland and a safari ride at Chessington. Compare to the parks that Heide has to compete with in Germany and it naturally has to up its game.

I could be totally wrong though and it could be just because Krake did good things for Heide in 2011.

 

[Darren B]

Re: Heide Park | Unknown | B&M Wing Coaster

^I don't think that's the case to be honest, The Planning for The Smiler would have started a long time before the FL Volare.

If they were competing with the Volare they lost the battle, Volare's are vile but fab, The Smiler is just vile!

 

[TheCoasterCruiser]

Re: Heide Park | Unknown | B&M Wing Coaster

Final part before the brake-run.

 

[Ethan]

Re: Heide Park | Unknown | B&M Wing Coaster

Dat banking <3

 

[MouseAT]

Re: Heide Park | Unknown | B&M Wing Coaster

The international parks must be under different management, because there's no way Nick [Varney] would approve Krake or this ride in the UK.

^ That's not true - Nick is overall any single Merlin project that's happening. It IS his company afterall.

That I didn't know. I wonder why he doesn't seem to be as bad when it comes to approving decent projects in mainland Europe then. If what John Wardley was saying is accurate, I'd have though he'd have killed a lot of other projects on the grounds that they're not unique enough for the marketing teams to sell to the general public. Something doesn't quite add up here.

 

[Darren B]

Re: Heide Park | Unknown | B&M Wing Coaster

I suppose maybe Krake was given the go ahead because of its uniqueness? It was and still is the only dive machine in mainland Europe, The Wingrider was surely part of deal with B&M to produce 3 Wingriders, especially as all 3 have near identical height and track lengths.

You've got to think Collosus would have struggled to be approved by Varney though, even with the 'Europe's tallest' gimmick. I think a B&M hyper would have been more realistic if the coaster was built during his tenure.