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Thorpe Park | Hyperia | Mack Hyper Coaster | 2024

Yes true it’s giving me transformers vibes more than graceful goddess.

If it wasn’t Thorpe Park that would probably annoy me but theming making sense at Thorpe Park disappeared a long time ago.
 
I love the trains actually. It’s the hyperia story that doesn’t fit with everything else for me, rather than the other way around. Remove the story, or tell a modernised adapted version of it, rather than Greek goddess. The station box doesn’t exactly scream Greek goddess for me either.

I do wish they had onboard audio though. I thought onboard audio was a bit of a fad until I rode Ride To Happiness. It added so much, and wish they’d gone this route with Hyperia.
 
I'm fine with the story, why not add a little something that doesn't matter if you don't know it.

Props to Thorpe for not using a Fritzl like character and it's overcoming the prison in your own mind. It's actually highly motivational.
 
I do wish they had onboard audio though. I thought onboard audio was a bit of a fad until I rode Ride To Happiness. It added so much, and wish they’d gone this route with Hyperia.

I kinda felt the same way at first, although I do wonder if, at 80-odd miles per hour, you'd even be able to hear any onboard audio above the sound of the wind and 24 screaming chavs. Probably not to be honest, so I'm ok with that call.
However, to not install lights on these trains, along with not blending the gold and white paint job, is unforgivable.
I'm seriously beginning to wonder if we'll ever see the so called splash down effect too, or if we do, how long it will last. 🤷‍♂️
 
Correct me if I’m wrong, but Hyperia is themed to an ancient goddess, right? The trains don’t fit that theme. They seem almost mechanical.
 
Correct me if I’m wrong, but Hyperia is themed to an ancient goddess, right? The trains don’t fit that theme. They seem almost mechanical.

They are the mechanical machine you will board on your quest to find your fearless.

I just made that up but i’m sure Thorpe Park will come out with some similar nonsense to explain the look of the trains.
 
Here’s some photos of a dummy-filled train being reversed into the station courtesy of Thorpe Park Mania:

Testing must be close now!
Thanks, looks gorgeous! I get the feeling that this thing is gonna haul ass!
 
Testing must be close now!
Thorpe have confirmed on FB today that it won't be doing any full test runs today, but it's looking likely for tomorrow however 🤞

Credit to Coastertog on Instagram.
 

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I kinda felt the same way at first, although I do wonder if, at 80-odd miles per hour, you'd even be able to hear any onboard audio above the sound of the wind and 24 screaming chavs. Probably not to be honest, so I'm ok with that call.
However, to not install lights on these trains, along with not blending the gold and white paint job, is unforgivable.
I'm seriously beginning to wonder if we'll ever see the so called splash down effect too, or if we do, how long it will last. 🤷‍♂️
Thank you... Nobody else seems even remotely bothered by this... The trains look stunning to me, that is subjective though, so other's opinions are fair enough. But to not add lights, (if that is true) is objectively a bad decision.
 
Thank you... Nobody else seems even remotely bothered by this... The trains look stunning to me, that is subjective though, so other's opinions are fair enough. But to not add lights, (if that is true) is objectively a bad decision.
Oh trust me I am. The lack of colour blending, Planet Coaster style box station, incredibly bland surrounding buildings, the removal of the splash plaza, no lights, and that absolutely hellish looking queue line, it badly feels like Merlin is dropping the ball on presentation of what is going to be such a monumental coaster for the UK. Also, the front car. It feels strangely high-tech for the mythical graceful goddess theme and I feel like the two almost clash with each other. That front car is clearly trying to be *something*, but what exactly? The gold track also just looks brown, and blends in with the mud, so I seriously hope the area gets finished off to the point where the track contrasts nicely with the ground instead of blending with the dirt, but that brings me to my next point.

So far Nemesis Reborn and Minifigure Speedway clearly opened early in an unfinished state, and I'm hearing reports that the new ghost train thing at Heide is doing the same thing too. Does this mean that Hyperia could potentially open like this too? I sure hope not.

There's a lot of people in agreement with me that the queue almost looks intentionally awful to stand in with very tight completely enclosed corridors with little room to breathe. The nets above more-or-less confirm to me that the queue will have zero shade whatsoever, and the tight claustrophobic feeling of the walls isn't a great look for me either. There are soooo many infinitely better ways to handle this sort of thing, and this is not one of them.

It sounds like I'm being overly harsh on the presentation of this ride, and I am with good reason. For such a significant record-breaker that's going to be topping lists everywhere, I expect Merlin to be putting a little more pride into the way it's being presented.
 
Completely agree with the above.

It's so bizarre things have been finished the way they have, I was routing for a daedalus and Icarus vibe with this, elegant and graceful, yet we get a mechanical looking car, on a swamp bed and a half arsed queueline plan, removal of interesting view points and no track blending, so many disappointing reveals. I really hate the design of the car, it's piss poor in my opinion
 
Ugh, yes. My first thought when I saw photos of the queue was literally “Yikes” because of how horribly claustrophobic it looks. The trains look fine, I guess. But they don’t really fit the theme and not having lights is a major blunder.
 
The presentation is an interesting one.

I agree with some of the criticisms. I’m not a fan of what we’ve seen of the queue so far, and while I understand why they’ve done it (H&S probably wouldn’t have allowed for low enough fencing for it to be worthwhile), it is disappointing that we won’t be getting a viewing area for the splashdown element. That was probably originally designed to be a real “spectator” moment. The lack of lights is somewhat disappointing if true, particularly seeing as the nose car design almost seems to have two “headlights”, if you like, but it’s not exactly a deal breaker for me. It’s only really during Fright Nights that the park would open late enough for the lights to be worthwhile.

However, with some of the others, I don’t quite agree so much. I actually quite like the colour scheme, and I’m not personally sure that the blending would have been an absolute game changer. I also quite like the trains, particularly the colour scheme, and even the nose car that I wasn’t initially sure on is growing on me a lot. In terms of the station building, I think it looks nice and stylish enough, and the surrounding buildings look fine. Out of interest, what exactly were people expecting from the station, theming and surrounding buildings? Hyperia has never been sold as a heavily themed ride, and for a more stylised ride, I think that what they’ve done with the buildings looks good enough. Admittedly, a bit more landscaping might be nice as we get closer to opening, but it does look like they’ve started to do some planting, and we may well get more over the next month and a bit.
 
I'm kinda holding off on my thoughts about the ride area until it's completed, I feel like some aspects are unfair to judge currently. I really hope the splashdown goes ahead and in terms of train design I think it's alright, but the lack of lights is a missed opportunity. Even just some headlights at the front would be something. Kinda hope they get retrofitted in the future, I'm pretty sure it could be done.
 
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