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Thorpe Park | Hyperia | Mack Hyper Coaster | 2024

I'm intrigued to know how this whole construction content is being received outside of the thoosie circles.

It's quite a new thing to basically invite in the influencers to document every step of the construction and it almost seems like the 'marketing' has taken somewhat of a back seat in favour of this documentary style approach.

Nobody I know, ( including some of my part-time goon friends) has really heard or paid much attention to this if I'm honest.

This isn't a dig at Merlin or Thorpe here, I'm just very curious to see what numbers this is doing as opposed to some of the craftier, quirkier marketing done on rides such as The Smiler and Thirteen for example.
 
This is a very cheap and effective way of generating a 'pre-buzz' if you like? The hard-core marketing will kick in come spring I'm sure. It will be marketing itself over winter as people notice the construction from the M3 and naturally wonder "wtf is that thing?", this kind of neatly accompanies that. It's not like they can hide it to be fair!
 
If you're on park on opening day, chances are you're there for one reason, chances are you're heading straight over there... I'd snap your hands off for just 2 hours...
 
I take both your points, however from my understanding the pre-buzz is more of an enthusiast thing.

I don't really look at social media all that much. Are Thorpe posting much Hyperia content on socials etc? And have any of the tabloids, press etc pushed anything on this so far?

I would have assumed the Daily Fail and a few of the other rags would jump all over a domestic record breaker, even as early as this.
 
I take both your points, however from my understanding the pre-buzz is more of an enthusiast thing.

I don't really look at social media all that much. Are Thorpe posting much Hyperia content on socials etc? And have any of the tabloids, press etc pushed anything on this so far?

I would have assumed the Daily Fail and a few of the other rags would jump all over a domestic record breaker, even as early as this.
Advertising will probably be ramped up from January. Potential punters are distracted by Christmas at the moment.

Merlin tend to go big with marketing and I don't think they'll hold back with something as big as this.
 
I'm interested to see how this one plays out.

It'll be quite different for them to market a coaster based on a height record. I wonder how much 'theme' will actually play in the marketing too, since that's the shtick they're used to, y'know.

I'm looking forward to seeing whats in store anyway.
 
I take both your points, however from my understanding the pre-buzz is more of an enthusiast thing.

I don't really look at social media all that much. Are Thorpe posting much Hyperia content on socials etc? And have any of the tabloids, press etc pushed anything on this so far?

I would have assumed the Daily Fail and a few of the other rags would jump all over a domestic record breaker, even as early as this.
there's not really anything to promote to anyone other than enthusiasts atm, im sure when it's built we'll have every good morning tv show putting one of their presenters on ride etc
 
I mean, we'll all be there to see how it plays out... Right?

This is going to be huge, Merlin's got some very creative minds in Marketing... Just look at how much hype was created for a mere mid range GCI. Remember the whole Smiler campaign?

Now think about what they can do with the UK's tallest, fastest rollercoaster. There'll be some good marketing, it'll ramp up after Christmas, I'm sure.
 
Interesting to see this breakdown. Would love to know what doc it's from. I know European parks use different measurements for average guest space usage in queues. I wonder if this is a standard UK/Merlin measurement or something the architect has suggested?
It comes from the "Queue Lines General Arrangement" document in this set of plans: https://docs.runnymede.gov.uk/Publi...Search?FileSystemId=PL&FOLDER1_REF=RU.22/1922

Are we just going to ignore the fact that they're only expecting 90 minutes worth of queue? Or am I missing something, is that not what this document means? Maybe 525m is just an example rather than the actual queue length.

Also, 33cm of queue line per person? You'd literally have your nose pressed against the back of the person in front's head!
The calculations used do suggest that people group together so that there are 3 people per 1m of queueing space.

Back when I worked at Thorpe, there was research which suggested people would space themselves out so that there are 11 people per 3m of queueing space (so about 3.6 people per 1m).

It all sounds tight, but remember that a group of people who are together will naturally be pretty close, queues are usually wide enough to not be single file, and so forth. There will be a certain level of cultural differences too (English people will queue differently to French people, for example), so whilst it can be studied and numbers can be given, it's never an exact science.

I'd be curious how parks, and how different parks, calculate and determine these things nowadays.

There;s
 
Here are some pictures from Jacks newest video, some older pics first but from the workers perspective.
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Some more views from the site.
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And yep the next big section is underway.
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Finally walls are up on the maintenance shed and the first bit of gold has gone up on the top.
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Thorpe have also been doing a little history series with ep 1 and 2 out with the final tommrow which will show the new park logo.


 
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Holy Mega Trim Batman! Deary me, surely those long trims are going to feel horrible.. Hitting them at such a high speed you could be slamming into the restraint?

On a positive note, love the new park history videos before the logo reveal.
 
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